The Indian community in the United States played an effective role in the recent clearance of the civilian nuclear agreement between the two countries in the House of International Relations Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi said in Washington.

"The role played by the Indian American community shows their involvement, interest and commitment to the home country in whatever way they can. This a positive sign," Ravi told reporters referring to the passage of the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement at the Indian Embassy in Washington on Wednesday evening.

He said the feeling of "we have done our little bit" had boosted the confidence level of non resident Indians.

Ravi said the Overseas Affairs Ministry would make all efforts to ensure the involvement of NRIs in the economic development of India.

"My ministry's main effort will be to encourage the Indian community all over the world to become a partner in the progress and economic development of our country," Ravi said.

He pointed out that overseas remittances from NRIs were around $22 billion with $12 billion coming from the Gulf states alone.

Ravi stressed that after liberalisation and increasing emphasis on the market, the role of the individual states had increased, ensuring a healthy competition.

The ministry will help every NRI who wants to invest in India by putting them in touch with the states, Ravi said.     

"We will encourage and protect them," Ravi said, referring to the creation of new zones as incentives for attracting NRI investments.

On major investment avenues, he said tourism and health sectors were areas where NRIs could make a difference.

Ravi said his ministry was also actively involved in dealing with the social problems of the Indian community abroad, especially those related to the "abuse" of women.

"The abuse of women and others overseas is a serious problem and we are trying our best to maximise the reduction of the problem. The issue deals not only with the abuse of domestic help, but fraudulent marriages and other kind of abuses on women and labourers," he said.

He added that interaction in this regard had already been held with a number of states and non governmental organisations. Apart from asking every chief minister to set up inquiry cells at state level, Ravi said his ministry would be leaning on overseas missions of the Indian government to tackle the problem.     

Ravi noted that Indian missions overseas were playing a major role in resolving some of the problems that surface, not just in the Gulf, but in other parts of the world including north America.

There is a "visible" change in the interaction of Indian missions abroad and the respective communities, he said adding, that "complaints are coming down".

At the press interaction, Ravi announced an NRI centre would be formed in Washington DC which would interface with the Overseas Affairs Ministry under the administrative control of the Indian ambassador.

In the course of his visit to the United States, Ravi visited Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Orlando, Washington DC, New York and Chicago.

He attended annual/bi-annual conventions/conferences of American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin in Atlanta, Federation of Kerala [Images] Association in North America in Orlando, and the Federation of Gujarati Association in North America Convention in New Jersey.

In Washington DC, Ravi met leaders of various Indian community organisations with the community hosting a reception in his honour.