All this while, the government had no idea on how many Indian students go abroad to study. In the absence of any such data, they have now launched a registration module for them so they could be reached in case of emergency.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted out the link to the website:
We have no data of Indian students studying abroad. We have therefore, started a Students Registration Module on https://t.co/h8IZFvYsRx
— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) September 8, 2016
At the time of writing this, 1085 students have already registered.
MADAD, which translates to help, is described as a "Consular Grievances Monitoring System".
It's a website meant for people who work abroad. It can be used for grievances about compensation, court cases, domestic help, in the event of an arrest abroad, for the transportation of mortal remains, repatriation, salary dues, etc.
The website notes that among the 13206 grievances registered, 8233 have been addressed.
"Only grievances falling under the consular jurisdiction of concerned Indians Diplomatic Mission mentioned in the grievance, filled in by the grievant, will be entertained by the Indian Diplomatic Mission," the MADAD portal states.
However, MADAD cannot be used for visa, passport queries, emergency travel documents, or attestation of documents.