Govt tweaks guidelines of fund to help Indians overseas

The government tonight decided to tweak guidelines to broaden the scope of a fund to help overseas Indians in times of emergency and distress.
The Union Cabinet, which met this evening, decided to revise the guidelines for the Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF), an official statement said.
ICWF, set up in 2009, is aimed at assisting overseas Indian nationals in times of distress and emergency in the most deserving cases.
The revised guidelines are now being made broad-based to expand the scope of welfare measures that can be extended through the fund.
"The guidelines would cover three key areas --assisting overseas Indian nationals in distress situations, community welfare activities and improvement in consular services," the statement said.

The tweaked guidelines are expected to provide Indian missions and posts abroad greater flexibility in swiftly addressing to requests for assistance by overseas Indian nationals, it said.
Apart from assisting Indian nationals in distress abroad, ICWF has been a critical support in emergency evacuation of Indian nationals in conflict zones in Libya, Iraq, Yemen, South Sudan and other challenging situations like assistance extended to undocumented Indian workers in Saudi Arabia during the Nitaqat drive in 2013 and the ongoing amnesty drive.