New Delhi, Jan 7 (IANS): India Tuesday pressed for stronger networking between Indian and diaspora youth to forge partnerships in trade, industry, entrepreneurship and social work that would lead to employment and wealth creation.

“Our goal should be to build a strong global connect of youth,” Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) Vayalar Ravi said, inaugurating Youth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2014, an event ahead of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD), annual Indian diaspora meet, Wednesday.

The Youth PBD has been envisioned as a platform to provide opportunities to Indian youth to meet and interact with their overseas counterparts.

The theme of this year's PBD is "Engaging Diaspora: Connecting Across Generations" and the Youth PBD is expected to open new horizons of a strong network of young overseas Indians.

Ravi said his ministry has been at the forefront in engaging the youth diaspora residing in various countries by introducing various schemes and projects like Know India Programme (KIP), Study India Programme (SIP), and Scholarship Programme for Diaspora Children (SPDC).

These schemes and programmes have benefited the diaspora youth as well as the diaspora children immensely by exposing them to the cultural heritage and the growth and development story of their mother country, India, he added.

Ravi also released a report on youth by FICCI titled "Realizing the Dream of a Progressive and Inclusive India - A Youth Perspective".

The report seeks to explore three distinct domains in which the resident and non-resident Indian youth are forming partnerships to create sustainable models of growth that can confront global challenges in the socio-economic sphere.

It looks at how the Indian labour market is transforming into one which is far more educated and better skilled and how the reversal in migration trends is adding to the experience and expertise available in this market.

Further, it explores how Indian youth are increasingly looking at entrepreneurship as a career choice and how a number of experienced NRIs are now returning home to set up niche businesses.

It also looks at how a fair chunk of these businesses is based on innovative models and are being founded with a large social footprint.

The report also examines how the Indian youth are partnering with NRI youth to develop not-for-profit institutions that are looking at ensuring that development transcends the limits defined by the economy and translates into improved social upliftment.

MOIA Secretary Prem Narain said the proposed e-Migrate Project would transform the emigration into simple, transparent, orderly and humane process. It would result in significant improvement in the quality of services to emigrant workers since it would simplify different processes in the emigration cycle and improve effectiveness.

He added that social security agreements were also being worked upon with the various host countries to safeguard the interests of the Indian workers going abroad.