Friday, January 07, 2005

PM announces dual citizenship for overseas Indians

NDTV.COM: "Handing out a carrot to the Indian Diaspora on the first day of the third Pravasi Bhartiya Divas, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today announced that Non-Resident Indians or NRIs will now get dual citizenship. But the citizenship will be conditional to their home countries allowing it under their law.

The decision to give NRIs dual citizenship means that they will have most rights that resident Indians enjoy, but not the right to vote. Till now, dual citizenship is only extended to those settled in 16 countries. But the community is now questioning whether this really makes a difference. Dual citizenship may make it easy for them to enter the country and also invest in it, but they still can't vote in India.

The government has also decided to consider simplifying the procedure for registration of People of Indian Origin (PIO) for granting them dual citizenship."

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