Ramesh Soparawala
India Post News Service
CHICAGO: A career diplomat with wide ranging experience under his belt serving many an Indian Mission abroad and headquarter too, Amit Kumar has come to Chicago recently as the new head of Indian Consulate, In a short span of only three months, he has not only breathed in fresh air in the functioning of the Indian mission which otherwise would have turned dormant in the wake of Corona spread but has also earned respect and huge goodwill among the community members at large because of his humility and sincerity of approach
The Indian Mission as is the case with many others has discontinued for the time being the practice of offering Passport, OCI, Visa services and renunciation of Indian citizenship in person but the new head with his able staff has been offering on line services abiding the Corona considerations.
The work load has come down but has been still felt a lot as there is a huge demand for its various services Besides, the Mission has to follow guidelines set up in Delhi
It is worth noting that OCI Card holders requiring re-issue of their cards in the wake of issuance of new passport had a breather as the last date has been extended to December 2020 A note from the Consulate states that as and when the restrictions on the international travel are lifted by the Indian government, the status of the OCI card holders as life long visa for travel to and from India gets restored Till this time the OCI card holders will be allowed to travel on the strength of the existing OCI cards bearing old passport number, subject to certain conditions
The burden is also up in the wake of Vande Bharat junket devised primarily to help stranded Indian origin persons and others too in Midwest areas Hundreds ofpeople has taken advantage of this facility to reach India and come from India, and a good degree of credit should go to Amit Kumar for his input to Delhi His staff including Consul Gupta and Consul Ranjit Singh handled the task so far successfully.
The international flight are on a hold for the time being and it is Air India which is prime source right now pressed into in service However, United, Air France and Lufthansa are likely to be in the line for resuming operations and expectations are that by mid August the regular commercial [flights would resume.
Consul General Amit Kumar has not confined his activities only to Vande Bharat and Consulate’s regular services. He has started casting his net wide and plans for boosting economic cooperation between India and Midwestby holding and hosting virtual on line meetings He will also get more actively associated with community events time and other considerations permitting. Even in cultural field, has plans and the startis with conducting on line weekly sessions on Hindustani Vocal music and weekly sessions on Indian classical dances
The Hindustani music workshop is conducted by accomplished vocalist Chethan Anant while weekly classical dance workshop will be hosted live by MsAninditaNeogy.
An accomplished dancer trained in Jaipur as well as Lucknow schools of Kathak India is also having a variety of dance styles and there is popular Bharat Natyam
The Consulate has invited Ms Anjali Verghese to conduct dance session on Bharat Natyam too and this has commenced from July 7 on the Consulate Facebook page The music workshop by Anant has been live on the Consulate’s Facebook page every Friday beginning July 10 while the weekly dance sessions by MsNeogy has been hosted live every Wednesday starting July 8 2020
India presents huge opportunity for collaboration in the Health care field and the Consulate did support Nexdigam in holding a Webinar in Health care titled India’s Attractiveness and Opportunities on June 3 last.
The Webinar assumed importance in the context of prevalent Covid pandemic and the supply side constrains inducing many companies across the globe revising their manufacturing strategies diversifying into new geographic locations There was an impressive list of speakers and the webinar was a huge success and CG Amit Kumar told this paper that it would have number of such webinars in the near future.
Amit Kumar also mentioned that there are huge opportunities for collaboration between India and the USA in general and for Midwest where in lies huge possibilities for areas like food procession, health care, IT sector and hospitality for Midwest
He pointed out that in recent weeks there has been a number of announcements by US companies undertaking major investments in India. These include plans by Google to invest $10 billion, $ 5.7 billion by Facebook, $ 1 billion by Foxconn, $1.2 billion by Walmart and $1.6 billion by Saudi Arabia’s PIF.
In addition there are several other $ 100+ million investment propositions by different companies. While investments have flown into both manufacturing and IT sector, it is the latter category that is being watched with great interest, he said
These investment decisions are both a recognition of and confidence in the potential of the Indian economy reflecting the opportunities that lie ahead as well as a testimony to the government‘s concerted push on digitalization- digital empowerment and innovation. “All in all, the future ahead in the Indian IT space looks very exciting”, he added.
CG Amit Kumar joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1995 and has served in several Indian Missions abroad dealing with both bilateral and multilateral work in diverse areas such as political, strategic and economic spheres. Prior to his Chicago assignment, he was the Deputy Chief of Mission in the Embassy of India, Washington DC with Ambassador-rank. His overseas assignments include stints in a number of key capitals as Third Secretary in the Embassy of India, Beijing;
First Secretary dealing with political work in the Embassy of India, Berlin; First Secretary / Counselor dealing with political, information, cultural and education work at the Embassy of India, Ankara; Counselor and Head of the Economic & Commercial Wing in the Embassy of India, Beijing; and Counselor / Minister dealing with Third Committee and UNSC matters in the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations, New York.
CG Amit Kumar holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur He is married to Ms. Surabhi Kumar and has two children.
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