KOCHI: Since returning from Dubai due to the Covid-19 outbreak, Gijo Panchachikkal, 51, has been trying to learn the ropes of running a business in Kerala by associating with a tyre dealership in his hometown of Changanassery.
Though he believes his savings from working for 25 years in the Gulf will come in handy, things won’t be easy given Kerala’s dubious reputation for red-tape and trade unionism. “Only when you start doing the paperwork that you realise how difficult things are,” he said. On the other hand, Seby Alappat, a former advertisement controller in the Gulf Times newspaper in Doha who returned to his home in Thrissur after 15 years, is exploring job opportunities.
“I had to undergo a treatment and returned after availing the end-of-service benefits from my employer,” he said. The two are among the four lakh non-resident Keralites (NRK) expats who returned from West Asia after the global economy tanked due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The returnees include 2 lakh who lost their jobs, as per the state government’s NORKA-Roots department, which is in charge of NRKs’ affairs. “We have come up with various initiatives to integrate overseas returnees into our society.
Our rehabilitation programmes to provide self-employment opportunities for NRKs have received good response from returnees,” said NORKA-Roots CEO Harikrishnan Namboothiri K. He said 1,043 new ventures were established by overseas returnees in 2019-20, while over 400 more came up since April this year. Under the rehabilitation scheme, the state provides loans between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 30 lakh for new businesses, by tying up with 15 public sector and cooperative banks.
“We provide a maximum of Rs 3 lakh as capital subsidy and 3 per cent interest rate deduction for four years,” Namboothiri said, adding that the government is expanding the scope of the support programme for foreign returnees to help them set up IT ventures and startups through mentoring, funding and market access initiatives. Meanwhile, the huge number of NRI returnees is a big worry for the state, as remittances account for nearly a third of its economy. According to World Bank, Kerala received $18 billion (nearly Rs 1.3 lakh crore) in remittances in 2019.
This year, the World Bank expects remittances to fall by 20 per cent due to the pandemic and the overall contraction in global economy. Chanson Alexander, 52, who returned after working in Saudi Arabia for about 25 years, said he is planning to settle down in Kerala. His father V M Chandy was among the first set of emigrants from Kerala who went to the Gulf during the 1950s.
Chandy returned in the 1970s to set up his film production company Jolly Films, which produced big hits such as “Padma Vyuham’ and ‘Picnic’. “I am not going back,” says Alexander, who can depend on his savings and farming. Seby said he will return to the Gulf if things do not work out here. “I may not get the salary I drew earlier. I’m may return to the Gulf if things do not go as per plan here,” he said.
4 lakh
non-resident Keralites returned from West Asia after the global economy tanked due to the Covid-19 pandemic
Kerala got $18 billion (nearly D1.3L cr) in remittances in 2019. This year, it may fall by 20%