Crisis: India to protect expats

With the global financial crisis affecting Indians in the Gulf region, Vice President Hamid Ansari has said the Indian government was mulling steps to ensure the welfare of expatriates reeling under the meltdown.

Addressing a gathering of Indian community in Kuwait, the Vice President, the first top Indian leader to visit the Gulf country in 28 years, said India's "innate" caution has saved it from the worst effects of the economic meltdown.

"The good thing, as Indians, is the innate caution for which we were blamed has saved our country from the worst consequences of meltdown.

"It has affected us in some measure but by no means as it has affected others," the Vice President said.

India's growth rate which was 9 per cent last year will be about 6 per cent this year, Ansari said, adding that it will be one of the highest globally.

"Some people here are affected, some people in the Gulf are affected. These are the matters on which the government is thinking because the welfare of Indians is the primary responsibility of the government of the country," he said at the reception last night hosted by the six-lakh strong Indian community, the largest expatriate group in Kuwait.