When London-based hotelier Jagpal Singh Khangura returned to his home state Punjab in 1990 to build a hotel, the state government was incredulous, even discouraging. Punjab was wracked by terrorism and real-estate prices were rock bottom. The then governor S.S. Ray even advised him to invest the money in a hospital instead. But Khangura was unyielding and bought a prime piece of land in Ludhiana, the state's industrial capital. A Rs 110-crore investment and over a decade later, Punjab's first five-star hotel, the Park Plaza, was commissioned in January last year.

Ludhiana Jagpal Singh Khangura A successful hotelier in the UK, he ignored terrorism to invest Rs 110 crore to set up Punjab's first five-star hotel. "Investment is guided by instinct to keep in touch with my roots."

"It's an investment guided by instinct to keep in touch with my roots," says 65-year-old Khangura, who left a low-paid teaching job to emigrate to a recession-hit Britain in the early 1960s. Beginning with odd jobs-driver, tea blender, postman-he finally bought a street cafe in Southall in 1966 and turned it into a £100 million hospitality business. Today, he has named the Rs 12,000-a-night presidential suite in his 150-room hotel "Latala suite" after his ancestral village. He may be a British citizen, but Ludhiana is the first home for him and his wife Gurdial Kaur. "Doing business here is more gratifying. It allows me to do something for the people of India," says Khangura who also plans to set up a Rs 40-crore dairy unit in his village.

Khangura represents the new crop of NRI wealthmakers in Punjab who are driven not so much by nostalgia as the passion to replicate their success stories back home. They are the forerunners of a trend that augurs well for a state with meagre NRI investments. In the past decade, the NRI investment in the industrial sector was less than Rs 200 crore against proposals of Rs 700 crore, even though there are roughly two million expatriates of Punjabi origin abroad.

These are the first-generation emigrants who ventured abroad seeking better opportunities and ended up creating incredible rags-to-riches stories. Their keen business sense is now pulling them back home. Drawn by the advantages of doing business in post-liberalisation India, they are extending their core strengths to Punjab.

Take the Lallys. Resham Singh Lally, a farmer's son who was among the first emigrants from the Doaba region in the 1960s, made his millions in automobile dealerships in the UK and the US. With £46 million worth of assets, he was ranked 33rd among Britain's richest last year. In 1997, the "car king" entered the premium car market in India. His UK-based cousin-cum-business partner Tarsem Singh Lally has since moved to Jalandhar with his family and handles the Honda dealerships in north India.

"Since the premium car market in Britain is more or less stagnant, we changed gear to tap the opportunities in India," says Tarsem, 57, managing director of Lally Motors, the biggest premium car-seller in the state. From Rs 15 crore in 1997, the group's turnover shot up to Rs 200 crore in 2002. "Doing business at home helps provide high growth and an even higher comfort level," says Tarsem. Sarabdeep Singh, his Cambridge-educated son, concurs. "Only a virgin territory can offer such a dream run," says the 27-year-old who travels to Britain only for a vacation or to meet his friends.

Chandigarh Baljit Singh Sandhu Had a thriving real-estate business in Canada. Back in India, he set up an immigration consultancy worth Rs 10 crore with 100 franchises worldwide. "Love for the country flourishes if you have money in your pocket."

Jalandhar Tarsem Singh Lally He made millions selling cars in the UK and US. Settled in Jalandhar, he is the biggest premium car-seller in Punjab. "Doing business in India offers high growth and higher comfort."

Chandigarh Kewal Dhillon The "Pepsi king" is the largest franchisee of the soft drink giant. Returned from Canada to build a Rs 300 crore empire. "Nothing succeeds like success among your own people."

Jalandhar Darshan S. Sandher Facing a tough business environ in UK, he shifted base to Jalandhar. Owns two garment manufacturing units with Rs 15 crore turnover. "Shifting base was a survival strategy but it turned to success."

For 57-year-old Darshan Singh Sandher too, homecoming was a smart business move. Based in London since 1964 and owner of a readymade garment manufacturing business, Sandher found the going tough due to the rising cost of production and influx of cheap Chinese textiles. In 1994, as several of his units folded up, Sandher shifted base to Jalandhar. He enrolled his two daughters at a boarding school in Dalhousie and set up two export units in Jalandhar and Ludhiana that now employ nearly 150 women. While the machinery from Switzerland helped him meet the quality standards, the cheap labour available in India drastically cut production costs.

"Shifting base was a survival strategy, but it has turned into a recipe for success," says Sandher. "Cost-cutting has helped me build on the advantage of having a market abroad." In the past eight years, his annual turnover has quadrupled to Rs 15 crore. "It's tough doing business here, but I count the pluses," says Sandher. A plus he doesn't tire of mentioning is the exposure his two children are getting to Indian culture.

NRIs are not only looking to making clean profits but also satisfying their desire for recognition. "Nothing succeeds like success among your own people," says Kewal Dhillon, chairman of Chandigarh-based Rs 300-crore beverages business. Better known as "Pepsi king", the 50-year-old is the country's largest franchisee of the soft drink giant.

Dhillon was barely 18 when he left for Liberia in keeping with the family tradition-his great grandfather was among the first Indians to sail to Canada-and was the first NRI from Punjab to sense the opportunities that a liberalised economy would offer. So in the 1980s he left the thriving family business in Liberia to spearhead Pepsi's foray into agro-business in Punjab at a time when the anti-MNC feeling was running high. "Being the son of a farmer, facing risks came naturally to me, and this pays off in business," he says. "I felt if I could do well in an African country, I could do so in India too." Dhillon is assisted by his Texas-educated sons in running the group that is now setting up Chandigarh's first multiplex.

Though for some like Sandher, bringing their children back to the land of their ancestors is important, for others it is only incidental. "The dollar knows no nostalgia," says prominent Canadian NRI and former premier of British Columbia, Ujjal Dosanjh. Baljit Singh Sandhu would agree. On retiring from the army, Sandhu left for Canada in 1988 and made a fortune by dabbling in the real estate and retailing businesses in Toronto. In the early 1990s, when militancy spurred an exodus from Punjab, Sandhu tapped the need for legal immigration. So in 1993, he came back to Punjab and set up World Wide Immigration Consultancy Services. Today, at least 40 per cent of the 40,000 professionals emigrating abroad every year are from Punjab.

"I cashed in on the Punjabi craving to go abroad," says Sandhu, who now clocks an annual turnover of Rs 10 crore and has 100 franchisees in India, Canada, the US, Australia, and the UAE. But the 55-year-old son of a farmer is not content with the fortune he has made from the low-investment, high-profit business. With the consultancy market crowding up, Sandhu is looking to diversify. He has set up a Rs 20-crore, 500-acre country club-cum-golf course on the outskirts of Chandigarh. Designed by WAT&G, a Hawaii-based hospitality architecture group from South Africa, the Forest Hill Resort is targeting NRIs and high-end customers. However, consultancy is still the hub of Sandhu's business. So he has set up a coaching institute at Mohali, near Chandigarh, offering professional courses that are in demand abroad. The institute is affiliated to a Canadian university and the faculty too is from the same country. "Love for the country will flourish if you have money in your pocket," he says rubbishing the fears of a brain drain.

What has also provided a fillip to the NRI business is the generational synergy. While first-generation expatriates are investing their dollars, their foreign-born children are transplanting the western work culture. Doing business in Punjab has also brought about a change in their attitude vis-a-vis India. "If you are game for hard work, India is the best place to invest and grow," says Sarabdeep.

Khangura's son, Jasbir Singh Jassi, agrees. "India allows you to implement ideas much faster than anywhere else." So, one of the floors of the family hotel has his Rs 10-crore software company that designs education content for British schools. And in order to beat bureaucratic hurdles, NRI magnates are using their business ventures to cultivate clout. "I did not have to shell out a single penny as bribe," says Khangura, who doesn't hide the family's political ambitions as a corollary to its business success. His wife contested the previous assembly elections as the Congress nominee and has since been nursing her constituency.

Despite the state Government's attempts to woo entrepreneurs with off-the-shelf industrial plots and single-window clearances, many investors still perceive business enterprise as risky and feel more at ease putting their money in real estate. In the past eight years, NRI investments in real estate have been pegged at Rs 1,000 crore-a key factor in the buoyant property prices across the state. "It is the safest bet," says Major Singh Sahota, who has shifted from Vancouver to Jalandhar and invested Rs 7 crore in a shopping plaza. "I am getting a safe return while bringing up my children in the culture that we were missing abroad," he says.

The state Government too realises the need for investment. "NRI money can boost the state's sagging economy," says Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. But as leading British business magnate Lord Swraj Paul said during his recent visit to Jalandhar, "Emotional ties will not woo NRI investors, a sound infrastructure will." The hen-and-egg conundrum is not lost on many. Says Dhillon: "The Government is flirting with non-serious NRIs while refusing to learn from those who have carved out success despite the odds." Full of promise that its prodigal children are, it would be a good time for the Government to start learning.