New Delhi, Jul 19 (IANS): Over 1.63 lakh Indian nationals renounced their Indian citizenship during 2021, the highest during the last three years, the Parliament was told on Tuesday.

Data provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs in Lok Sabha disclosed that the US was the top choice with almost half of Indians - 78,284 - preferring to become US citizens.

In 2021, as many as 1,63,370 Indians gave up their Indian passports. The corresponding number in the year 2019 and 2020 was 1,44,017 and 85,256, respectively.

Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai, in a written reply, said that the reasons for these Indians renouncing their citizenship, which also means they have to surrender their Indian passport, was "personal to them".

As per the data, shared in response to a query by Bahujan Samaj Party member Haji Fazlur Rehman, showed that that after the US, Australia (23,533), Canada (21,597), the UK (14,637), Italy (5,986), New Zealand (2,643) and Singapore (2,516) were where Indians preferred to get citizenship.

So far as US citizenship is concerned, 78,284 Indians took up US citizenship in 2021, 30,828 in 2020, and 61,683 in 2019. All of them were based in the US itself while renouncing their Indian nationality.

A total 41 Indian nationals based in Pakistan also gave up their Indian citizenship last year, compared to only seven in 2020.

Total 326 Indians renounced their citizenship while being in the UAE last year and applied for citizenship in countries such as Albania, France, Malta, Pakistan, Philippines, Portugal, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahrain, Belgium, Cyprus, Ireland, Grenada, Jordon, Mauritius, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Vanuatu, among others.