Govt links Pravasi Divas with Kumbh |
Fifteen years after then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee launched the `Pravasi Bharatiya Divas` (PBD, or Non-resident Indian Day) conference to mark the day Mahatma Gandhi returned to India from South Africa, the government has decided to move the date to facilitate NRI Kumbh Mela visitors, and “maximise their experience” during their visit to India. The 15th edition of the event will be held in January 2019 in Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s constituency, and close to the site of the `Ardh Kumbh` in Allahabad. The participants will be taken by bus from Varanasi to Allahabad, after which they will travel by train to Delhi to witness the Republic Day parade. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj appealed at a press conference, addressing the NRI community that they attend the conference with full enthusiasm, as dates have been changed at their request, and for which they have two new attractions. While the PBD conference has been scheduled for January 7-9 since its inception in 2003, the 15th PBD conference in 2019 will be held on January 21-23rd instead. MEA sources said the Ministry had received feedback that the event, which drew about 1,800 delegates from 72 countries in 2017, was increasingly being seen as a “talk-shop, without concrete results”.
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