COMMENT | The Indian Consultative Council (ICC) constitutes individuals who have experience and expertise in specific domains that cover the core of the blueprint document in areas of education, employment and entrepreneurship.

They also include leading academics, industry practitioners, professionals and community leaders representing the diverse stakeholders of the Indian community.

The group is also complemented by experienced people who have done extensive work with B40 communities in specific areas like poverty eradication, affordable housing, access to welfare programs, healthcare and social inclusion.

The presence of experts in the field of the digital ecosystem, innovation, sustainable development initiatives as well as project management and media practitioners adds the much-needed current refresher that’s needed for the Malaysian Indian Blueprint (MIB) to be effectively rolled out in the post-pandemic world.

We will also send out invitations to all lawmakers, including both the upper and lower houses of Parliament.

This bipartisan approach will ensure the permanency and sustainability of the long-term strategic visions that have been outlined in the MIB.

This will ensure, that despite changes at the helm in Putrajaya, the MIB will be pervasive over the developmental horizon of 10 years leading to 2030.

Role of ICC

While initially the primary role is set out to analyse the refreshed Pelan Tindakan Masyarakat India (PTMI) document that is now being readied in its final draft form, where the members will provide relooking at the scope of the blueprint, provide feedback on set KPIs and the timelines that have been disrupted by Covid-19 pandemic.

The ICC was also expected to provide a moving forward strategy to the National Unity Ministry where there is a clear need to set out priority areas of focus and quick wins in implementing the MIB.

The terms and references of the full ICC will be shorty published after the complete formation is done in due course and all invitations have been sent out.

Moving forward plan

At the interest meeting, the members present have looked at the delivery model, budgets, avoiding national developmental initiatives and consolidation of targets and realignment where necessary.

The general agreement was there needs to be a rehash of the baseline data and demographics which have been alerted drastically after the Covid pandemic.

An example cited is the shift of 12.8 percent more households from the T20 category to the middle-income category, while 20 percent of the middle-income earning households have moved towards the B40.

This will change resource deployment and bring into focus areas that are emerging priorities.

As the lawmakers in the opposition bench have been briefed recently, the National Unity Ministry team in charge of formulating the refreshed PTMI document will be holding a brief for the ICC and related stakeholders on July 13, 2022.

I am confident that all the members of the ICC from all the stakeholders including my honourable members of the opposition bench while having diverse views, will have a unified vision for the Indian community's developmental goals as we pin this plan down as an affirmative plan for the Malaysian Indian community for the next 10 years.

This will be a new paradigm as we take the “all of the community” approach for the common interest.

SA VIGNESWARAN is Prime Minister's Special Envoy to India & South Asia, and MIC president.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.