NEW DELHI: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the highest contributor to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in India from the Gulf region. Between 2017 and 2021, around $6,488.35 million was invested by the UAE in India. It was revealed by Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan in a reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.
The UAE is one of the top 10 Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) contributors in India. During the last three years, $5.5 billion FDI came from the Middle East country. Saudi Arabia is also one of the significant contributors to FDI in India.
Meanwhile, UAE is important for India from the expat point of view too as nearly 35 lakh Indians live there. Remittances to India from the UAE are high too and have registered a five per cent increase in the recent months say sources.
According to the MEA, the major investment into India from Gulf countries is: $6488.55 million from the UAE, $3058.25 million from Saudi Arabia, $223.49 million from Qatar, $181.45 from Bahrain, $109.25 million from Oman and $37.91 from Kuwait.
According to the minister, the Indian migrant workers returning from the ECR countries between June 2020 to December 2021 included 1,52,126 from the UAE, 1,18,064 from Saudi Arabia, 51,206 from Kuwait, 46,003 from Oman and 32,361 from Qatar. According to the eMigrate portal, a total of 4,16,024 Emigration Clearance were issued for ECR countries during the period January 1, 2020 to June 30, 2022, he said.
The number of people who left India to work in the six Gulf countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, between June 2020 and December 2021, is 1, 41,172. As per statistics, the trade with the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Iran together constitute 18.25 percent of the total trades of India with foreign countries.
Fate of National Museum stuck in limbo as ministry yet to take decision
The fate of the National Museum building on Janpath is stuck in a limbo as the culture ministry has not taken a decision about demolition of the structure and shifting of artefacts preserved there yet. As part of the government’s ambitious Central Vista Project, the museum holding two lakh objects from pre-historic era to modern art works is proposed to move to North and South blocks housing offices of various ministries.
“No decision in this regard has been taken,” Union Culture Minister G Kishan Reddy informed Rajya Sabha on Thursday while replying to the question asked by former culture secretary Jawhar Sircar, who is TMC MP. The MP has also asked whether any consultations were
held with experts before floating an Expression of Intent in October, 2021 for building a central storage facility of museum collections? The minister stated that the government had carried out consultations.
