New Delhi [India], December 3 (ANI): External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Wednesday outlined progress over the past decade in enabling mobility of Indian talent — from expanding passport services and setting up welfare funds for Indians abroad to how India’s demographics are meeting global demand.
Speaking at the India’s World Annual Conclave 2025, he said India comprises one-sixth of the world’s population and, among the younger working-age cohort, about one-quarter of the global workforce of that demographic. “So, our relevance to the global talent skill market is only going to grow,” he remarked.
Jaishankar noted that global discussions tend to focus on trade while overlooking work and worker mobility. He identified three key aspects of mobility: demography, competitiveness and societal attitudes toward work.
Highlighting the economic scale, he said remittances to India last year were USD 135 billion — roughly twice India’s exports to the United States — and urged attention to the assets Indians have created abroad.
He warned that mobility poses political and security challenges in destination countries and stressed the importance of legal, formal migration channels. “When mobility is legal, when mobility is formal, then it has a lot of benefits. But when it is not, then I think it is actually almost a magnet for every kind of bad business to be associated,” he said, citing trafficking and other crimes and the risk of political or separatist agendas attaching themselves to illegal mobility.
Jaishankar outlined three outcomes of a proper mobility framework: improved skillsets for mobile workers, formal arrangements governing movement, and measures to equip migrants with the confidence to operate in global workplaces.
Reviewing achievements of the last ten years, he said passport access has notably increased: a decade ago there were about 77 places in India to obtain a passport, and in the last ten years the government added 468 more such locations, expanding the entry point for international mobility.
He also pointed to diplomacy’s role: India has 21 intergovernmental agreements specifically addressing mobility, with mobility provisions included in some pre-trade agreements, adding a new dimension to bilateral relationships.
The Mobility Imperative Conference aims to convene conversations on global developments in mobility. (ANI)
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