ABSTRACT
Diaspora-and remittances-related development issues have been an area of increased interest in recent times. This has been a crucial concern especially for developing countries and particularly India, which has a large diaspora dispersed around the globe. Being an essential part of policy-making in recent times, many aspects of diaspora-related development have been a part of current literature on migration, with remittances being recognized as a major player in this developmental process. The potential of remittances in fostering development, if managed efficiently, have been increasingly acknowledged through studies in various developing countries. Remittances to India have increased manifold during the past two decades, with the current figure standing at US$69 billion in 2012, maintaining its position as the world’s top remittance-receiving nation. However, on the downside, due to lack of specific micro-level data, much of the impact of both individual and collective remittances on receiving households and communities respectively have remained almost untapped. Existence of variation in the utilization pattern of remittances across Indian states is evident from recent studies (Sasikumar and Hussain 2007; Zachariah and Rajan 2007; RBI 2010), which is intriguing and raises several questions about region-wise uses and impact of remittances. Hence, there certainly arises a need to understand the role played by remittances in different regions in India, to capture the causes and differential impact.
