May tweak Emigration Act for global workplace, says external ministry

India is looking to amend the Emigration Act of 1983 as part of efforts to meet the demands of the global workplace and to promote the legal movement of people while discouraging non-legal migration, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday.

- Rezaul H Laskar

NEW DELHI:

The government has launched a range of skill training, vocational education and professional preparation efforts to make Indian workers more productive in the contemporary era, he said at an event marking the launch of the Global Access to Talent from India (GATI) Foundation.

Noting that India has not developed or leveraged its human resources to the extent it could have in the past, Jaishankar said: "Conceptually, it is vital that we promote legal mobility and strongly discourage, I would argue even prohibit, non-legal ones."

The challenge of the black economy has to be faced in the context of talent flow, societal good and national security. The Emigration Act of 1983 was "designed to address the demands of a particular geography in a certain era" but the "times have changed and our vistas have expanded", he said.