Nris have reason to cheer. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has accepted the report of the High Level Committee (HLC) on the Indian Diaspora, declaring that the issue of dual citizenship was "resolved", and it would facilitate the contribution of Indians settled abroad to India's progress. The one word is significant, considering the issue arose a decade ago, soon after India began its economic reforms. In its 15-month long study, the HLC-chaired by former high commissioner to the UK, L. M. Singhvi-has "resolved many issues pertaining to dual citizenship". The Constitution is no longer seen as a hurdle. "It permits the government and Parliament to do what is proper in this matter. It is a mistaken notion that the Constitution would have to be amended to provide dual nationality," says Singhvi. Dual nationality will be available only to citizens of countries that already provide it-such as the US, Canada, the UK, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore.

Another aspect resolved: "We drafted a legislation to allow those who gave up their passports to resume their Indian nationality." The final aspect is allegiance. With security a concern, dual citizenship will be permitted only to those who "satisfy criteria in the legislation to be enacted to amend the relevant sections of the Citizenship Act, 1955". As Vajpayee put it, "We are in favour of dual citizenship. Not dual loyalty."

-Nasima H. Khan

DRESS CIRCLE
Indian Clothes For PR Success

That Koh-i-Noor of democracy, a public relations triumph, is the prize Cherie and Tony Blair are supposed to have won by wearing their sort-of-Indian suits in Bangalore recently. The British press, from The Times and The Guardian to tabloid The Daily Mirror, were impressed enough to carry the first couple's picture on their front pages with reports to that effect.

London-based Indian designer Bubs Mahil provided the Blairs with their outfits. Mahil's other high profile clients include movie star Britt Ekland, cricketer Mark Ramprakash and Virgin supremo Richard Branson, who wore a kurta pyjama with a long cream cape at his airline's launch in India.

The benefits of the publicity to British Asian fashion are expected to be sizeable. Indian designers like Tarun Tahiliani, Rohit Bal, Rina Dhaka, Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla have a big profile in the UK but locally produced Asian fashion doesn't feature prominently in boutiques there.

-Suman Bhuchar

EYE ON CHINA
Mainland Moves

Fears about Hong Kong's imminent demise as a premier international finance centre are at least as old as China's takeover of the city and have proved unfounded. Even so, the recent move by chipmaker Motorola Semiconductors to move its assembly and testing facilities to mainland China and Malaysia will revive some worries. Motorola has laid off 800 of the division's 1,500 employees. Coming as this does at a particularly bleak juncture in the city's employment scenario, this could accelerate the flight of human capital to the mainland.

Since 9/11, the global downturn that hit businesses in the US has been taking its toll on Hong Kong too. Mainland China has been relatively unaffected, perceived as a safer bet in these troubled times.

Though the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom still lists the island as the best location on earth for free enterprise, investment may be increasingly shanghaied, literally. Chinese authorities certainly see Shanghai as their showpiece and want to promote it as the city of the East.

Fang Xinghai, assistant president of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, is already predicting that his city will replace Hong Kong as China's premier international money markets centre once its financial services sector opens up. Unless Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-Hwa can reinvent the city.

-Samrat Choudhury