Indians living overseas
Many Indians are trying to migrate and settle in other countries (“Indian diaspora have special place in our hearts: President Murmu at Pravasi Bharatiya Divas”, Gulf News, January 10). In 2021, over 0.16 million Indians renounced citizenship, the highest in the past five years, according to information provided by the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs.
If the Indian government is sincere about Pravasis (non-resident Indians or NRIs), start the process to make NRI voting rights a reality. Announce welfare as well as rehabilitation measures for Pravasi. Frame rules to protect their families back home. India has one of the most primitive duty-free rules in the world. Any gift items sent to India will be considered to be “imported into the country” and, irrespective of their value, attract a combined tax of 82 per cent, including customs, excise, and The goods and services tax (GST). Earlier, foreign gift items worth up to Rs50,000(Dh2,251.18) were excluded from attracting taxes.
Similarly, the duty-free allowance on gold is Rs50,000 (Dh2,251.80) for males and Rs1,00,000 (Dh4,435.36) for females. This rule was established in 2012, and the gold price has increased more than 200 per cent since then. Pravasis need more consideration to make the celebration of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas more meaningful.
From Mr Girish R Edathitta
India
India beat Sri Lanka by 67 runs
Congratulations to the Indian cricket captain Rohit Sharma and his team for their win against the Sri Lankan team in their first ODI(One Day International) by 67 runs (“KL Rahul helps India beat Sri Lanka to clinch ODI series”,Gulf News, January 12). Of course, due credit should go to Virat Kohli, who scored his 45th century in ODI and the valuable contributions from our openers to put up a daunting target of 374 runs. In reply, the Sri Lankan batsmen were troubled by the pace bowlers to dismiss 8 batsmen for 206 runs in 38 overs and stared at a heavy loss. However, the Sri Lankan captain, Shanaka, was not ready to surrender and stitched a valuable century partnership with the tail and scored a timely ton to save some pride for his team. Out of the 12 overs left, only 19 balls were faced by Kasun Rajitha, for just nine runs, and the rest was carted all over the field by the captain to remain not out with 113 runs. It was the captain who led the team from the front. Even though they lost the first ODI, they seem to have won the hearts of cricket fans worldwide.
Well played, Sri Lanka, especially their captain, Dasun Shanaka.
From Mr N V Krishnan
India
Cricket: Australia win three-match series
The Australian Cricket team Captain, Pat Cummins, is on cloud nine after the series victory against the South African team (“Australia keeping bowling options wide open for India for Test series’, Gulf News, January 11). The Australian skipper said he was proud of his team’s efforts as they had to pick 20 wickets within 150 overs. However, Australia had already clinched the three-match series after winning the first two matches in Brisbane and Melbourne. Now Cummins is keen to conquer the final frontier, which has been eluding them for a long. Hence he has requested Cricket Australia to bolster the spin attack to include left-arm spinner Ashton Agar to partner with their front-line spinner, Nathan Lyon. Then they have Travis Head, a front-line batsman who could also spin the ball.
It will be better if the team guard against complacency to win the series easily and qualifies for the World Test Championship (WTC) finals to be played at Lords.
From Mr Vinay Mahadevan
India
