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No one "hates" the NRIs. But get the facts right. According to the RBI, over 90% of overseas Indians work in the Gulf region and South East Asia as mostly semi-skilled and unskilled workers. The Gulf region accounts for 54% of the value of the annual remittances to India. (1/n)
By Gulf, we mean the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries: UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman. They contributed 54% of remittances to India despite the sharp decline in oil prices and fiscal tightening in these countries. (2/n) 
The remittances from USA was only 23% of all remittances to India. This was so because the Indian diaspora in the USA are characterised by high skills and high earnings. So, lets have some balance here. It is the sweat of our workers in the Gulf that dominate remittances. (3/3)
For more, see rbi.org.in/scripts/BS_Vie…
Now, another set of data from the World Bank show the following for 2016. If the Gulf region sent $36 billion to India (52.1 % of total), North America sent $14 billion to India (19.8 %).
Source for the above: epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?e…
My tweet responding to @ARanganathan72 has elicited a no: of responses. I'll respond to some. First, I wrote that USA isn't home to majority of "NRIs" (his term) & that the largest % of remittances don't come from USA because he specifically wrote of USA's importance to India 1/n
Second, responding to me, @ARanganathan72 notes that USA had the largest number of "overseas Indians" in 2018. Note, he has shifted to "overseas Indians" from "NRIs". Let me to stick to NRIs. In 2018, about 65% of NRIs were in GCC countries and only 9.8% of NRIs were in USA. 2/n
@ARanganathan72 If I take "overseas Indians" (following @ARanganathan72), 28% of them lived in the GCC, while 14.4% of them lived in the USA. In absolute terms, about 85 lakh overseas Indians lived in the GCC, while 44 lakh overseas Indians lived in the USA. Source: mea.gov.in/images/attach/… (3/n)
@ARanganathan72 Even if I add up NRIs, persons of Indian origin & overseas Indians, I get a similar result. In 2018, 28% of all these Indians lived in GCC, while 14.4% of all these Indians lived in USA. Please note that my original tweet had used data from RBI and added up GCC and SE Asia. (4/n)
@ARanganathan72 Thus, GCC countries are home to the largest share of Indians outside India, and in particular NRIs (65%, as compared to USA's 9.8%). These are "number" of NRIs, and the values of remittances were provided in my original tweets. (5/n)
@ARanganathan72 I was only trying to argue that it is the mostly unskilled or semi-skilled Indian workers in the GCC who constitute the majority of "NRIs" (his term, not mine!), and it from their sweat and blood that most of India's remittances come (54% of the annual value of remittances). 6/n
@ARanganathan72 Our discourse on NRIs is often centered around the Western countries, including USA. This is mistaken. With all respect to NRIs everywhere, it is important that we note the geographical distribution of this population and the relative quantum of remittances they send in. (7/n)
But, alas, @ARanganathan72 is simply not ready for a conversation. He has blocked me! 😢 Why such irritation with a counter-view, bro? ☺️ (n/n)
