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Indian citizens are today permanent residents of all but three countries in the world, the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs has confirmed.
The ministry registered the presence of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) in 180 of 183 countries of the world, according to the Times of India.
The numbers vary from just two in Lebanon to almost a million in the United States of America. It is only in North Korea, Pakistan and Bhutan that not a single NRI is to be found.
NRIs are Indians who hold on to their blue Indian passports while living in another country. They are also different from ordinary Indian citizens who obtain visas and go abroad to work or study for a limited period of time.
NRIs remain citizens of India but enjoy the right to live and work permanently in another country of their choice.
Indians can now be found in places like even the Republic of Palau in the Pacific Ocean.
Furthermore, according to the ministry, 20 of them live in the mountains of Bolivia and a 375-strong Indian community living in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa.
Historically, Indian communities have had a major presence in several parts of the world; be it Gujarati merchants who settled in East Africa; Tamil Chettiars who lived in south-east Asia or indentured labourers taken from Bihar to work on plantations in the West Indies and Fiji, Indians have been migrating to other countries for centuries.
During the two World Wars, they fought for the British army and settled down in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada.
The NRIs were a post-independence addition to this long list of migrants.
Historically, the NRI's favoured destinations have been First World countries or West Asia, where employment opportunities abound.
But the latest data confirm that in a globalised world, NRIs are making opportunities in literally every corner of the Earth.
The largest number of NRIs are in Saudi Arabia (17 lakh) followed by the United Arab Emirates (14 lakh) and the US (9 lakh) but what is more fascinating is they can also be found — albeit in minuscule numbers — in Slovenia (10), Montserrat (10), Iceland (21), Bosnia and Herzegovina (30) and Burkina Faso (150).
If People of Indian Origin (PIOs) - a term for citizens of other countries who have an Indian ancestry - are included, then both Pakistan and Bhutan would also find it difficult to shake off the Indian links to their populations.
