With Indian diaspora rapidly scaling up in educational achievements, income levels and influence, the

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Indian government is chalking out slew of measures to deepen the diaspora engagement. The Central government is planning to establish three new universities for the benefit of the children of NRIs and people of Indian origin (PIOs).

The universities will have reservation of 50 per cent seats for NRIs and PIOs. The first university will be set up in Bangalore and is expected to be operational by 2010, G K Vasan, union minister of statistics and programme implementation said addressing a session on Friday at the 7th Parvasi Bharatiya Diwas, held at Chennai.

The Government has also increased the number of scholarships to 120 to facilitate unhindered access to higher education for children of NRIs and PIOs who are not economically well off in their adopted lands, he added.

Vasan noted that overseas Indians have contributed a great deal to the economic and social empowerment of their families back home, to the development of their communities and to the economic enrichment of India. In recent years, the remittance inflows have increased from $ 13 billion in 2001 to over US $ 30 billion in 2007.