Why India could be the new ‘Sunny destination’ for NRI’s post Covid!
According to a Ministry of External Affairs report, there are 28 million NRIs and PIOs residing outside India.
About 15,000 Indian nationals stuck abroad have returned home, as part of the government’s ‘Vande Bharat Mission’ during these troubled times. Over 3 lakh NRI’s have applied to return back to India and await earliest travel opportunity.
Apart from this first wave, there will be more NRI’s who’d come back and for good reasons, in what can be start of a full-fledged reverse brain-drain:
- Job and/ or socio-cultural scare in their host countries
- India has progressed from the time they had left the country, with a lot more sophisticated urban living options available now.
- As per Nasscom, By 2030, India will be the largest workforce in the world with 90 million+ people.
- Jobs in India in high-tech pay as much as the jobs anywhere else in the world, sometimes more, with others understandably lower pay, which still works better given the lower cost of living.
- The rupees’ depreciation had been a factor of considerable interest for the NRIs
- India’s growth in the recent years, minus the last couple of quarters has been encouraging, with a positive outlook for the future with more jobs potentially getting added
Source: World Bank national accounts data, and OECD National Accounts data files.
- To start-up on their own. India attracts the 3rd largest venture capital and has a buzzing entrepreneurial eco-system
- India is a huge market and a talent powerhouse – a potent combination. India is the 5th largest economy in the world today and 2nd most populous nation; is expected to surpass China in a few years. It is the 2nd largest smart phone market, 3rd largest consumer market & 3rd largest by purchasing power parity.
- Government: Campaigns like ‘Digital India’, ‘Make in India’, ‘Start-up India’ & ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ will be crucial
- NRI’s can buy commercial or residential properties, leverage exclusive tax benefits, get special exemptions on stamp duty/ registration, municipal taxes and can also avail loans
- To stay close to their families, given the travel is going to get tougher
- Contributing to their motherland
- Retirement related
- To provide kids the same atmosphere they grew up in
- Economical to live rather luxuriously, including domestic help, chauffer’s, personal trainers, golf memberships, etc
- Food & Travel – Able to indulge in the desi khana and be able to travel to multiple domestic and foreign destinations at a much lower cost
- Weather in India is so much more bearable, albeit one needs adjustment for the first few months to get used to the environment