Leveraging knowledge Networks within the Indian Diaspora

Jan 31, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
With some prominent exceptions, the developing world is fast losing opportunities where leveraging its Diasporas’ Knowledge Networks could transform the usual ‘same old, same old’ stagnant economies into a vibrant Knowledge Economy (KE); without this transformation to a KE, many such countries will not achieve sustainable growth rates; and poverty, and social and economic disparities will reign over those lands for a long time to come. This line of argument carries greater force for those countries unable to attract the traditional Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
India needs to consolidate its KE to maintain its high growth rate, to reduce its social and economic disparities, and refashioning a new path to becoming the fastest growing global economic powerhouse.
And India can consolidate its KE through leveraging its Diaspora’s Knowledge Networks. India, for some time now, remains in the business of engaging the Indian Diaspora to secure an increased and sustainable economic growth; and India would need to rapidly make the World Bank’s four pillars of KE happen if it is to truly become competitive in the global KE. And leveraging its Diaspora’s Knowledge Networks would be a flagship for India’s KE.
The Indian Diaspora would be the critical mover of Knowledge Networks to consolidate India’s KE for these reasons: The Indian Diaspora demonstrates a greater proclivity to engage in risk situations in its home country than non- Diasporans; in this context, Indian Diasporans may have better knowledge and capacity to induce relationship opportunities in both India and the Diaspora’s overseas bases; the rate of return to a unit of investment by the Indian Diaspora may be greater than that of the traditional FDI; the Indian Diaspora provides social capital vis-à-vis its Knowledge Networks.
Social capital is a resource available to the Indian Diaspora, a resource emanating from their positions in numerous overseas organisations; nonetheless, the Indian Diaspora also could elicit resources from the non-Indian Diasporas, thereby drawing from other Knowledge Networks; the bottom line is an increase in the repertoire of knowledge and skills; significant social capital that the Indian Diaspora already is infusing in India.
Nonetheless, the fundamental driving force of the Indian Diaspora’s social capital is goodwill which thrives on trust, sympathy, and forgiveness. And this social capital addresses capacity building; nevertheless both India and the Indian Diaspora must ensure that inputs to the home country are: culturally appropriate; responsive to real demand; and consonant with national priorities.
How to mobilize social capital from the Diaspora? We may want to do the following:
* Identifying capabilities – personal and interpersonal skills and experience – and confidence; these would require a Knowledge Network base, enabling the Diaspora to contribute its collective effort. The Government of India through its Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre (OIFC) partnered with Tata Consultancy Services to create the Global-Ink which would seek out the Indian Diaspora as ‘knowledge’ partners, Indian institutions as ‘stakeholder’ partners, and the Government as a ‘Facilitator’.
* In the case of India, the Indian Diaspora could extend beyond its own capacities and boundaries to reach other Diasporas, that is, tapping additional social capital from heterogeneous networks (non-Indian Diasporas).
* And the Indian Diaspora would need to bridge this non-Indian Diaspora Knowledge Networks with its own Knowledge Networks to secure a continuous flow of expertise from within itself and from other Diasporas; for instance, India’s Diaspora could bridge social capital, that is, resources from outside its own community, from other migrants in these overseas countries. And the Indian Diaspora, about 25 million strong, would fast become a tremendous stakeholder, by virtue of its leveraging of Knowledge Networks, in securing the consolidation of India’s KE.
But before we can bridge our own Diaspora with these other Diasporas, whether it is India or some other country, we first have to make our own Diaspora strong, transforming it into a collective force – this is the bonding process in action; once the Diaspora is strong and can act collectively, then its bridging function (tapping resources from other Diasporas) becomes fertile and effective.
And then there is bonding the social capital from homogenous networks, that is, from its own Knowledge Networks; in the case of India, these are resources coming from the Indian Diaspora itself and within its own Indian community. Bonding, nonetheless, is critical because the Indian Diaspora Knowledge Networks must ensure the sustainability of its own resources and to make the bridging function effective, for the consolidation of India’s KE.
Prem Misir

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