Dubai: The Indian Consulate in Dubai has asked Indian citizens in Dubai and the northern emirates to register their details with a portal that sends out emergency alerts.
“Global Pravasi Rishta Portal -an interactive platform, has been launched by @MEAIndia to facilitate communication with diaspora. All members of the Indian community are invited to register on the portal,” the mission said in a Twitter post on Sunday.
Launched by India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on December 31, 2020, the Global Pravasi Rishta (Global Diaspora Relations) portal aims to link the Indian diaspora across the world, estimated to be nearly 31 million.
An estimated 3.4 million Indians living in the UAE can also register with the portal that issues emergency alerts and advisories.
The facility will enable three-way communication between the MEA, Indian diplomatic missions abroad and the diaspora, the ministry had said.
“This portal will act as a one-stop-shop for the diaspora, carrying only those things that are relevant to them. Every aspect of the Indian diaspora can be addressed through this though we have various other channels also. It will be linked with a few other portals of the MEA,” a spokesperson of the consulate told Gulf News.
Database of Indians
The registration of expats is expected to enable the missions in the UAE to have a database of Indian citizens in the country. Though Indian missions in the UAE have been repeatedly urging Indian expats here to register their details with the missions, not many have done it so far.
“When we have good data, it is easy to address the issues concerning the community. It will be useful for us to have the records of the community members for various community programmes and any sudden developments in the county,” the spokesperson pointed out.
“The importance of database was realised during the COVID-19 pandemic and having a strong the database through the registration done for the Vande Bharat Mission greatly helped with the repatriation of stranded Indians.”
Live updates
The portal is meant to have live updates of expats’ database, said the spokesperson.
“If a registered citizen relocates to another place and makes a new registration with the mission over there, there will be a mechanism to show that the person had already registered with another mission earlier.”
It will then have to be delinked and the new place of residence will have to be updated.
“The portal would enable the diaspora to reach consular office/services in a timely manner. Through the portal, registered members of the Indian diaspora would receive emergency alerts, advisories, updates on activities of the Embassy and information on the existing and new government schemes on a real-time basis,” the consulate’s post added.
