MEA figures show over 31 million Indians live across the world | Total NRI Live Across World Ministry of External Affairs

As the globalisation project shrivels due to rising protectionism across the world, the future for highly skilled Indians abroad is likely to turn bleak..

There are only two countries where there are no Indians: right across the border in Pakistan and in the Holy See, in the heart of Rome dominated by the towering St. Peters Dome (the figure obviously does not include incarcerated Indian nationals). In the picture-perfect palm-fringed islands of Micronesia, there is one lone desi. The population of Micronesia was 1.05 lakh in 2016, according to the World Bank.

There are 31.23 million Indians scattered across the world, estimates the ministry of external affairs.

In a reply before the Lok Sabha, the MEA provided a detailed list of Indians overseas with inputs from the missions. There are 107 Indians in Syria, which is a battle zone. In North Korea, where Kim Jong-un is willing to sit across the table with President Trump, a dozen Indians are waiting with bated breath.

In 2016, remittances from Indians overseas accounted for $61.23 billion. Between April 2017 to September 2017, Indians contributed $33.47 billion home.

Bitten by wanderlust or going far away from home just to make a living, Indians have spread across the length and breadth of the world. From Mongolia, where there are 155 (150 non-resident Indians and five people of Indian origin), to the Cook Islands where 200 people of Indian origin outnumber the 5 NRIs, the numbers reaffirm that Indians are certainly globetrotters. In Albania, there are 50 and in the tiny island of Anguilla—a tax haven with blue waters and soft sand, as tax havens tend to be—there are 20 (The NRIs outnumber the PIOs by 10).

When President Ram Nath Kovind went to Equatorial Guinea, he would have met the 250 Indians who live there; in Swaziland, it would have been a full house with 1,000 desis being part of the population. The number of NRIs and PIOs are evenly matched. The only other place where the numbers of both are even is in the Principality of Liechtenstein, where there are five NRIs and five PIOs. Even the Kingdom of Lesotho has 1,500 Indians. The number of PIOs outnumber the NRIs by 1,000.

The cold certainly doesn't seem to worry Indians as Iceland has a sizeable Indian population at 250 NRIs and 76 PIOs. There are also countries in the world where there are no NRIs, but PIOs: in the island of Kiribati, known for its white sand beaches and folk dances, there are 50 PIOs, and St Martins in the Caribbean is home to 5,300 PIOs.

Of course, it isn't difficult to guess where Indians flock by the dozens. The red, blue and white shores of America have 44,60,000. Out of them, 12,80,000 are NRIS.

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