A lot has been said about the contribution of the Malayalis in terms of foreign remittances following large scale migrations to the Gulf region. Their total amount from foreign remittances has just crossed Rs 1 lakh crore according to a report in The Times of India.The report mentions that from data sourced from the state level bankers committee (SLBC), NRI remittances by Malayalis, which were Rs 93,884 crore at the end of the last year have grown by 17% and now total close to Rs 1.1 lakh crore.Data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) shows that there is a total of Rs 7 lakh crore in NRI bank accounts. Keralites would thus account for close to 1/6th of the total figure.According to the World Bank, India has the largest share of remittance flows of all countries and a total of Rs 4.2 lakh crore came in through this channel in 2014.A survey by the Kerala government shows that the money from remittances benefited close to 50 lakh people out of 3.15 crore in the state.Government data shows that close to 5.73 lakh Keralites reside in the UAE and close to 4.50 lakh in Saudi Arabia. The US has more than 78,000 Malayalis and Europe houses roughly 53,000 of them.