India planning to enter into SSAs with China, Russia: Govt

India is planning to enter into Social Security Agreements (SSAs) with China and Russia and is also holding informal consultations on a similar pact with the US, the government said today.

As on date, India has signed and operationalised SSAs with 18 countries including Australia, Austria, France and Grmany, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

The minister said the MEA is the "competent authority " for negotiating the SSAs and is planning to enter into SSAs with several other countries like China, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, Mexico, Peru and Cyprus.

Informal consultations on SSA are ongoing with the US, Singh said.

Noting that bilateral SSAs protect the interests of Indian professionals, skilled workers working abroad, he said it exempts the Indian worker from making double social security contribution.

Replying to a separate question, he said there are over 1.16 crore non-resident Indians abroad as per the data compiled in December 2016.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)