“Singur is not India, and the CPM is now being paid back in the same coin,” Ravi said when asked if acquisition of land for such universities would be a problem.

On the last day of the PBD conference, the minister said the first university where the children of NRIs and PIOs would have 50 per cent reservation, being set up in Bangalore by the Manipal University, would be functional within two years. The Indian Government was examining proposals to set up three more such universities, where there would be similar quotas offered, as well as scholarships for the children of “poor NRIs”.

Even as he admitted that the Bangolre project did get into legal hurdles due to cases filed by people who also wanted to set up similar institutions, Ravi added as soon as the Nano project in Singur got into trouble, six chief ministers immediately invited Tata Motors to move the Nano plant to their states. “So that is the real India,” he said, clarifying that the stays on the Bangalore project had been lifted.

The minister listed the number of measures taken to protect the rights of Indians working overseas, including suspending unscrupulous recruitment agents. The ministry has already signed MoUs with West Asian countries such as UAE, Qatar and Kuwait, and efforts were on to do so with Saudi Arabia, Malaysia. “We’ve also started negotiating with European countries like France to ensure that Indian workers, who are going to be there for less than five years, do not have to pay social security taxes,” he added.

Ravi said he was happy with the successful outcome of the second PBD held in Singapore. “This conference, where the topmost people from the Singapore Government participated — the Minister Mentor, Senior Ministers, the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister — has sent a strong message. It has opened the new emerging India to this part of the world and sent the signal that India will always be an attractive destination for foreign investments.”

Ravi said even though India was not insulated from the shadow of the global financial crisis, which he said was due to excessive forward trading, India had the strength to isolate itself from it to a certain extent. “Our banks have not collapsed and none of our financial institutions have a problem,” he said.

When the collapse of the capital market was pointed out to him, the minister said, “I’ve always held that they often behave like glorified casinos.” The next PBD would be held in Chennai in January 2009.