West Asia will continue to be an attractive job destination for at least the next 20 years, according to NRI businessman Ravi Pillai.
“The world will not function without energy and when it comes to energy, the Gulf will have to continue to function,” he reasoned in a recent interaction with The Hindu. Mr. Pillai has also seen the Gulf transform as an investment destination over the past four and a half decades.
As someone who employed around 1.75 lakh people, Mr. Pillai, who also serves as director of NORKA-Roots, a field agency under the Non-Resident Keralites Affairs department responsible for all things non-resident Keralites, says Keralites tend to get skilled and high-tech jobs in the Gulf and Europe, while unskilled workers like the Udes and Pratars come from of Indian states like Bihar. countries such as the Philippines, Nepal and Bangladesh, giving examples of recruitment patterns in his own businesses. Meanwhile, the United States is becoming a more difficult destination for international workers.
Retirement age
While concerns persist that Kerala is fast becoming an aging society, Mr. Pillai believes there is a need for the state to increase its retirement age as “the productive age of its people has increased considerably”.
“In the past, people were considered old at 60, but now most stay working and active for much longer. So it is only reasonable for the state to increase the retirement age to fully utilize the capabilities of its people,” he says.
Mr. Pillai believes the state has adopted major changes in line with those around the world to attract investment. “Over the past 10 years, the state has seen a lot of changes. Our administrators have seen how the world has changed and realized that if you are not business friendly, no business will come here. We have limited availability of land or raw materials, but we have tremendous skills and human resources. Investors are coming here to take advantage of them,” he says.
Mr. Pillai also believes that Indian entrepreneurs are now commanding respect outside the country. There is a global perception that Indians are rich and wealthy – a perception, he says, that arose after Mukesh Ambani’s lavish wedding for his son, which Mr. Pillai says attracted the world’s attention.
Mr. Pillai, a native of Kollam, says he started the student scholarships in partnership with NORKA-Roots as a means of giving back to the society that nurtured him. With a corpus of ₹525 crore, scholarships are awarded to needy students from Plus Two to post-graduate levels, with 20% of the award in each category reserved for the NoRK department and 5% for differently-abled students.
Published – 12 Feb 2026 18:10 IST