Under the ‘India Development Foundation for Overseas Indians’, an initiative of the Ministry of Overseas Indians, they will get tax exemption if they want to build schools, primary health centres and other infrastructure in their villages or places of origin in India.

The ministry has already started the process of registering the foundation in the US and it will be in place in next three months, Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi said. After the US, the ministry will register the foundation in other countries, including the UK and the Gulf.

The foundation, a ‘not-for-profit’ trust being set up under the Indian Trust Act, 1882, by the Ministry, will be the nodal agency to implement the projects across the country in cooperation with state governments and selected NGOs.