'Remittances cost for Indians in Gulf should be brought down'

The high cost of remittances paid by Indian workers in the Gulf region should be brought down, the national head of the BJP's IT Cell has said.
"The cost of these transactions has to come down as it is too prohibitive right now. It is an unfair cost to pay," Arvind Gupta told PTI on the sidelines of South Asia Rising conference organised by Eisenhower Fellows earlier this week here.
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE -- can work together to remove these inefficiencies in the system and bring down the cost of remittances, he said.

Praising the 'Digital India' programme, Gupta said India is building digital infrastructure, both from hardware and software perspective, at an affordable operative cost.
"The biggest digital literacy programme is happening in India and we believe people will leapfrog alphabetic literacy to become digitally literate," he said.
Gupta said that what oil did to the world economy, data would do to the new world economy.

India and the Gulf region have a lot to discuss and learn from a digital perspective, he said, adding that India aspires to be the next destination or hub of new economy companies.
"We aspire to not only serve the billions Indians in India but the next six billion in the world. So India will continue to innovate," Gupta added.

India was the world's largest remittance recipient in 2015. Last year, remittances from the Gulf nations to India declined for the first time in six years due to sliding oil prices, according to a report.