40% rise in Remittances expected in the state of Kerala

With India expected to hold on to it No. 1 remittance receiving country tag with expected $70 billion in remittance flows according to a recent World Bank report. The southern state of Kerala is expected to rise by 40% to Rs 60,000 crore in 2012, as against Rs 50,000 crore in 2011.

“This shows that slowdown and other crises are no limits when it comes to sending money back home,” S Irudaya Rajan, chair professor, research unit on international migration, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs said.

Recent policy measures by the Reserve Bank of India have also given a fillip to the remittance business. After the interest rates on NSE and NRO accounts were deregulated last year, banks looked to shore up low cost deposits through this route, by increasing rates which were controlled. NRE saving deposits mirror domestic saving rates at 4% while interest on NRE term deposits range from 8.5% to 9%.

Indians lead the race of tech entrepreneurship in US

More and more Indians entrepreneurs are the faces behind a growing number of US tech startups. A study by the US based Kauffman Foundation shows that 33.2% of the co-founders of engineering and technology firms founded by immigrants in the US since 2006 were Indians. The next came the Chinese, at 8.1%.

Another study done in 2007 for the period 1995 to 2005 had found that Indians accounted for 26% of the co-founders during that period. So there’s been a 7 % increase in the Indian contribution in the post-2005 period. In fact, the Indian immigrant contribution was the only one that increased; most other immigrant communities saw a decline in their contributions, leading to a general stagnation in immigrant entrepreneurship in the US.

An interesting fact is “The Bay Area which has only six million people resides half a million Indians. And among those Indians, 72% work in the tech sector. Of the total tech firms that get funded in the US, 50% are in Silicon Valley. Not surprising that Indians are becoming founders or co-founders.

31.2% of Kerala GDP is contributed by NRK (Non-resident Keralites) in 2011

Hardly a surprise for the people living in Kerala, the state witnessed remittance from Keralites working abroad (NRK) to account for a significant portion of its GDP. In 2011, at Rs 49,965 crore, it touched an all-time high of 31.2 per cent of the state GDP, according to a recent report on Kerala Migration Survey, prepared by Centre For Development Studies (CDS), for Department of Non-resident Keralites Affairs (NORKA) and Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs. In 2011, there were 34,30,889 NRKs, up from 33,50,538 in 2008.

Most macroeconomic indicators show that NRK remittances in 2011 played a significant part in the economy of the state. “NRK remittances were 1.6 times the revenue receipt (Rs 31,181 crore), 6.2 times the money that the state got from the Centre (`7,982 crore) as revenue transfers and 2.2 times the entire government expenditure (Rs 22,546 crore).

Malappuram topped in overall remittance with Rs 9,040 crore accounting for 18.2 per cent of the state’s total remittance. Close on heels were Ernakulam (12.3 per cent), Kannur (10.4 per cent) and Thiruvananthapuram (9.5 per cent).

Asian population on the rise in US, Indians leading the way in income and education.

A recent study released by the Pew Research Center states that About 430,000 Asians – or 36 percent of all new immigrants, legal and illegal – moved to the United States in 2010. Just three years earlier, the ratio was reversed: about 390,000 Asians immigrated in 2007

The findings are part of a study called “The Rise of Asian-Americans,” a comprehensive analysis of the Asian population in the United States.

Among Asians 25 or older, 49 percent hold a college degree, compared with 28 percent of all people in that age range in the United States. Median annual household income among Asians is $66,000 versus $49,800 among the general population.

In the survey, Asians are also distinguished by their emphasis on traditional family mores. About 54 percent of the respondents, compared with 34 percent of all adults in the country, said having a successful marriage was one of the most important goals in life; another was being a good parent, according to 67 percent of Asian adults, compared with about half of all adults in the general population.

Asians also place greater importance on career and material success, the study reported, values reflected in child-rearing styles. About 62 percent of Asians in the United States believe that most American parents do not put enough pressure on their children to do well in school

A century ago, most Asian-Americans were low-skilled, low-wage laborers crowded into ethnic enclaves and targets of official discrimination,” the study said. “Today they are the most likely of any major racial or ethnic group in America to live in mixed neighborhoods and to marry across racial lines.”

Indians, for instance, lead all other Asian subgroups in income and education, the report said. Indians, Japanese and Filipinos have lower poverty rates than the general public, while Koreans, Vietnamese and Chinese have higher poverty rates.