Vajpayee appeals to ex-patriates over development

The Indian Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, has launched a campaign urging ex-patriate Indians to play a greater role in the country's development.

Mr Vajpayee told a conference in Delhi that Indians living abroad could play an important part in boosting India's international standing as a centre for developing new industries, particularly in the spheres of information technology and science.

He said many Indians had played important roles in their adoptive countries to help create new technologies.

He called upon them to make a similar contribution to India, helping the country to become what he called a knowledge super-power by the year two-thousand-and-ten.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service