The report by your staff correspondence entitled 'Link among scholars will help develop nation' on 16 October was very interesting. The initiative by the New York based web site (www.scholarsbangladesh.com) is without doubt a step in the right direction. Mr. Shameem Chowdhury, an expatriate, deserves kudos for the time and effort he has put on it. However, the words of two distinguished scholars during the launch have caught my attention. In their opinion, it seems, the NRIs (Indians) are more patriotic than NRBs. It is hard to establish this case since the present writer has seen, over the years, the skilled and semi-skilled expatriates of Bangladesh origin have been one of the most vocal and organised groups in the West. These dedicated souls have been providing free time and energy to uphold the nation's image since the liberation movement and more recently in the years of terrorism and uncertainty (of course there are some exceptions). Moreover, despite being a new nation (unlike India) our scholars could be found almost all western nations and have been contributing to their respective fields with distinction. However, one must admit that the NRIs have been more successful in building links with institutions back home, academic or non-academic, than NRBs.In this regard, the Indian Planning Commission and academic institutions in particular play a major part. For example, in the area of economic development (because of this writer's knowledge of the field) there is a concrete guideline in place in India for attracting collaboration from the NRIs. The Indian Planning Commission always searches for right Indian scholars for support either as paid consultants or under non-paid study programmes (research on taxation is an area that immediately comes to mind). I am afraid, I have no knowledge of such a collaborative guideline existing in Bangladesh either in the Planning Commission or in any academic institutions. Contrary to this, over the years one sees the NRBs have been subject to unfair criticism for being less patriotic.
The time has come to utilise this untapped huge skilled human resources with a minimum cost or even in certain circumstance free of cost.
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