New Delhi: After offering a rest in extending OCI card privileges to abroad Indians in Suriname, India is contemplating increasing the scheme to different international locations, together with Fiji, in response to individuals conscious of the matter.

In 2023, India introduced that the eligibility standards for abroad Indians in Suriname, a South American nation, can be relaxed. This meant that eligibility went up from the fourth era to the sixth era of the unique Indian immigrants who arrived in Suriname.

The transfer was seen as an effort to deepen India’s diaspora hyperlinks. Now, New Delhi is contemplating increasing the scheme to different international locations with giant abroad Indian populations, equivalent to Fiji.

Queries to the ministries of exterior affairs and residential affairs went unanswered at press time.

The Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card confers an a variety of benefits. Card holders obtain a multiple-entry, multi-purpose, lifelong visa to enter India and aren’t required to register with police for his or her keep within the nation. In addition, they obtain parity with Indian nationals and non-resident Indians on particular issues. However, an OCI card doesn’t confer the precise to vote or stand for elected workplace and isn’t a type of twin citizenship. The scheme was launched in 2005.

According to the house ministry, over 3.5 million OCI playing cards had been issued as of March 2020. The overwhelming majority have been issued to international nationals within the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. The MEA recorded that this quantity had crossed 4 million as of early 2022.

The OCI card scheme has been a key factor of the Indian authorities’s effort to deepen its relationship with its diaspora. This has additionally taken on significance in international locations like Suriname, which have giant populations of people descended from Indian migrants. In 2023, throughout a go to to Suriname, President Droupadi Murmu introduced that India would chill out the eligibility standards for descendants of Indian migrants in Suriname.

“She introduced the Government of India’s resolution of extending the eligibility standards for OCI Card up from the fourth era to the sixth era of these authentic Indian immigrants who had arrived in Suriname from Indian territories. She stated that the OCI card will be seen as an necessary hyperlink of their 150 yr outdated relationship with India. She urged members of the Indian diaspora to proceed to make efforts to take care of their connections with India,” the President’s Secretariat stated in a press release on the time.

The Indian authorities is now contemplating replicating the scheme with different international locations, like Fiji, which even have giant populations of descendants of Indian immigrants. The matter is at present underneath dialogue.