By Ritu Jha-
You have to commend the prime minister for being consistent in his interactions with the diaspora,” says M R Rangaswami, founder of Indiaspora, one of the sponsors for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s community event held at the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, New York on September 21.
“That pays dividends because when you look at things like remittances from the US, last year,” he said, pointing out that $26 billion went from the diaspora in the US to India.
“When you interact with the community, you tell them what’s going on, you work with them, you get results also. The Indian diaspora in the US is investing in India. A lot of them are buying apartments and condos,” said Rangaswami, who told indica he met Modi before his speech at the event. That was when Rangaswami shared details about the recent The Indiaspora Impact Report with Modi.
Rangaswami runs Indiaspora, a non-profit, whose members are mainly from tech startups and corporate entities.
He said last year that when the Delhi Land & Finance (DLF Limited) an Indian commercial real estate development company, opened a new complex in Gurgaon, the apartments were sold out in like a couple of days. Of the 1,000 units, 250 were bought by the Indian diaspora from different countries, including the US.
Rangaswami said Indian Americans are investing in real estate, in startups, and in the stock market in India. He said this was a result of politicians there keeping in touch with people abroad.
“Trade between the US and India has also benefited,” he said. “This means the Prime Minister has to interact, communicate, and work with people. That’s what he’s done, and it’s paying rich dividends.”
He pointed out that chief ministers of Telangana, and Tamil Nadu who visited the US saw members of the diaspora investing in those states soon after.
Speaking of the challenges in US-India trade, especially that involving Silicon Valley, Rangaswami said: “The big hurdle was the angel tax; and the government removed it in the last budget.… The angel tax was obstructing a lot of things. It took a little longer than we expected, but the matter was finally resolved in the budget. If you’re an angel investor, you don’t want to get taxed if you’re not selling your shares.”
Rangaswami said India’s capital tax rates are lower than those of other countries.
“While the US has 20 percent, India’s capital gain tax is only 12.5 percent,” he said.
He still has concerns about the OCI rules.
“Some rules have been changed recently,” Rangaswami said. “That makes it tougher for the OCI cardholders.”
When asked about the long waiting periods for Green Cards issue under the current administration, Rangaswami said: “I don’t think Biden can do anything because the H1B visas are not in his purview. He can’t pass an executive order and increase the quota for Green Cards. What they’ve done recently is speed up the process between Green Card and citizenship. Instead of just being on a Green Card and waiting for citizenship, that process is being speeded up, which is good. However, the H1-B to Green Card has not improved, the student training visa prior to getting an H1-B has not improved. It requires legislation by Congress. None of that can be changed until Congress acts. And Congress is not acting because they are wrestling between terms like undocumented and illegal and legal. This being an election year, nothing will happen.”
He said he supported Kamala Harris as an individual, but she has to bring it up, and Congress has to act. He felt it would take a long time before the president and Congress can work it out.
“It’s not a simple issue,” Rangaswami said. “Immigration reform means dealing with multiple issues. What about all the undocumented people in this country? How are they going to get documented? It’s a lot bigger problem and very complicated. Unless the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the president can agree on something, it’s not going to happen. The immigrant issue has been politicized in the elections. How do you get beyond that? It’s going to be very tough because it’s become one of the main issues of the campaign and it’s so heated. We have already completed, almost completed four years with this government and nothing has happened to resolve this issue. We will have to see if the next president and Congress are willing to act on it. I’m hopeful something will happen in the medium term, but it will not in the short term.”
Rangaswami said Harris gets along well with Modi.
“I was there last year when Kamala hosted Modi at the State Department, and it was a very friendly exchange,” he said. “The chemistry seemed very good to me. The vice president was very gracious, and talked about her time in India.”
Rangaswami said he expected the US-India relationship to get stronger, but that the importance of the relationship would help both parties get past their differences.
“India is in a bad neighborhood, and the US has a strong anti-China policy,” Rangaswami pointed out. “There may be issues, but I don’t know what they are going to be because a new administration has to come in. We’ll have to wait and see, I don’t want to speculate on that stuff. It’s too early.”
