Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2023: Date, time and schedule

File photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurating the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas convention.

India will observe  on January 9 to honour the contributions and achievements of the diaspora. The date commemorates Mahatma Gandhi's return to India from South Africa in 1915.

Once in two years, a convention is organised to mark the day. This year, the event is taking place in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. It is a three-day conference that began with the Youth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas on January 8.

Today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 17 edition of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas convention. Here is how the day will progress: 

The programme will begin at 10.30 am with a welcome address by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

After him, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will take the stage. His speech will be followed by those from the guests of honour -- the presidents of Suriname and Guyana.

Then, a commemorative postal stamp bearing the words "Surakshit Jaayen, Prashikshit Jaayen" (Go Safe, Be Trained) will be released.

After that, PM Modi will deliver a keynote address and inaugurate an exhibition with “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav" as its theme.

There will be a lunch break from 12 pm to 2 pm.

From 2.30 pm to 3.55 pm, there will be a plenary session on the role of the Indian diaspora in promoting healthcare ecosystems.

The second session, from 4 pm to 5.30 pm, will be "Leveraging the soft power of India".

There will be a 15-minute tea break from 5.30 to 5.45 pm

After the break, there will be a town hall till 6.45 pm, where former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant and diplomat Harshvardhan Shringla will speak

At 6.55 pm, Indian Council for Cultural Relations will present a culture programme.

Dinner will start at 8 pm.

Schedule on January 10

Two plenary sessions will be held on day 2 of the conference -- enabling global mobility of Indian workforce and tapping the potential of diaspora entrepreneurs, especially women.

Later in the day, President Droupadi Murmu will hand out the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards 2023.