Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Friday paid rich tributes to Non Resident Indians and Persons of Indian origin.

Congratulating those honoured with Pravasi Samman this year, Vajpayee said Chawla, the US-based astronaut who died last year, was being conferred the honour for epitomising Indian values overseas.

"She was a citizen of the United States but wanted to become a citizen of the universe... The Pravasi Bharatiya Samman honours the entire Indian Diaspora overseas," he said.

Chawla was killed in February last year during NASA's space shuttle Columbia's re-entry into earth after a 16-day space mission.

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External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha said that Non Resident Indians and Persons of Indian Origin have been a source of inspiration to one billion Indians. He congratulated the recipients of the Pravasi Bharatiya Awards for their outstanding contribution in the country of their adoption.

"Prime minister Vajpayee has come back after a historic visit from Pakistan. The relations between Pakistan and India have improve and for the first time Pakistan has given a commitment that it would not allow terrorists to operate from its soil against India," he said amid applause from audience.

He highlighted the improving relations between India and United States, European Union and other countries including China with which India has a boundary dispute.

"Our foreign exchange reserves are over $100billion. A great wave of enthusiasm is sweeping not only in India but also in the South Asian region. Connectivity with the world has improved because of the open sky policy adopted by the Government of India. India has reached out to the world and the world has reached out to India," he said. 

He said that the Indian goods were making inroads in some of the major world markets and they were competing with the best in the world. He mentioned that the Indian economy has registered a growth rate of 8.4% in the last quarter of 2003.