Asserting that Indians living abroad were eager to invest in the home country, Government said on Wednesday that the coming Pravasi Bharatiya Divas festival will be "more business-like" and "different" from the previous two annual events which had "no follow up".

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the three-day event on January 7, while President APJ Abdul Kalam will attend the concluding session and give away awards on January 9.

The dates of the festival have been advanced by two days from January 9, when it is usually held to mark return of Mahatma Gandhi to the country from South Africa, and venue this time will be Mumbai instead of Delhi, Minister of State for Overseas Indian Affairs Jagdish Tytler told reporters in New Delhi.

Promising the coming event to be "different", Tytler said it will be "more business-like" and its sessions will have focussed interactions covering areas like education, science and technology, healthcare, rural development, ethnic media and entertainment, NRI's in Gulf, finance and culture and tourism.

"Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and People of Indian Origin (PIOs) have money and they want to invest in this country but they don't know where to go," he said, adding his ministry would be acting as a "facilitator" in this direction.