Which Master's Voice?

(From Business Today (India))

They've never had a better time to shine their light on their revered Motherland. We refer to the 1,500 Non Resident Indians (NRIs) and other Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) who hauled their wisdom and wallets to New Delhi this January for the Second Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. Within the forum halls and without, they dispensed several gigabytes of bullish sentiment and superpower advice-even as their hosts fell over each other to make themselves hospitably worthy of all this attention from their significantly better spoken cousins (at least in drawl terms).

What makes them so special? Why-India's new-found status as a dollar-rich country, thanks to their persistent support; who else cares so much? Who else has been such a bankable source of dollars? Not to forget their role in lobbying their adopted country's governments in India's favour. Isn't India on the world's investment map at last? Hasn't America's all-so-important 'tilt' shown a dramatic change lately?

Since such counter-queries have arisen, perhaps it's time to put them to test. First of all, NRI-sent dollars account for only a fraction of the reserves; and even so, there is good reason to believe this is mostly money chasing rational returns rather than a measure of their 'support'. The typical NRI bond, for example, offers an interest rate higher than anything considered 'market set' by global finance. If Motherland-induced sighs had so much to do with putting money in these (or in NRI deposits for that matter), our rich cousins ought to be paying a 'price' for it-by accepting a sacrificial interest rate. Just who's doing whom a favour here is not altogether clear. That lower US interest rates have accelerated the funds inflow is further evidence that the calculations involved are quite monetary.

Nor have NRIs been a crucial source of on-the-ground investment in India, unlike the case of overseas Chinese in China. Of course, there's an explanation. The Chinese Diaspora is indeed a 'diaspora'-comprising business-folk who were forced out of the country by Mao's spooky experiment with people power. India's ...