Jerry, I understand your concern. India, Britain, China and a bunch of other countries are not eligible. Yes, by being born in (or even married to a person of an) eligible country you qualify for the diversity scheme. Yes, it is not lost upon me that there's a contradiction in this, because natural Indian born in an eligible country doesn't add to the "diversity" element of the diversity-visa scheme. Still the US will accept it! There's no diversity co-efficient or special racial-diversity logic they follow, it's their longtime set rules which they follow and by those you simply qualify. I know India's special position in the sense that the Indian race and people are over-represented in the US immigration system, but still it won't stop you in this case. Everyone knows that regular immigrant visas other than Diversity (ie. H1-B) are mostly going to India's people, and hence from a logical diversity angle you are not a "diversification". Anyway, you can throw all diversity logic out of the window, and just take advantage of the scheme, because you simply qualify according to the (crazy) rules, as would any other Indian if they happen to be born in in UAE. It's never used as a ground to refuse. There are more important things they'd be looking out for these days, like your character, police records, your financial standing, if you are a risk of becoming burden on the society (public charge), etc. Indian passport/race is not a problem, despite being highly over-represented in US immigration. If you find US good for you, then go for it.
I'm happy for people if they get what they want, but the logic of the "diversity" visa is a bit obsolete, which is the main reason for US bipastisan support to end the scheme in the near future. So in short anybody wanting to go, and eligible by the current rules, should try it now. The future is less certain.
