Vidya Sethuraman
India Post News Service
Consul General Dr Nagendra Prasad hosted an informal evening with the San Francisco diaspora media on Tuesday Nov 22 at Amber restaurant, Los Altos. The event was attended by over 25 plus local media representatives and consulate staff. Addressing the media professionals, Dr Prasad thanked the media for their extensive support and reach among the South Asians living in the West coast.
Dr Prasad said CGISF serves 1.5 million Indian Americans living in Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming and the Territory of Guam. Dr. Prasad also talked about the diverse relations shared by India-USA and how they have strong bilateral relations due to converging interests. Sectors like innovation, entrepreneurship, energy, healthcare, start, service, and aviation have a growing scope that can be explored further,” he added.
Dr Prasad discussed the consular services offered by the CGISF. He urged everyone to get OCI and e-visa which takes less processing time. The Consulate has offered 170,813 services from Jan 2022 – 21, Nov 2022 and this includes 38,355 passport, 90,470 OCIs, 13027 visa, 18,413 renunciation and 10,548 misc services. The OCI is an immigration status authorizing a foreign citizen of Indian origin to live and work in India for an indefinite period. He thanked the consulate officials for their hard work and dedication.
Dr Prasad invited the NRIs to the upcoming Pravasi Bhartiya Divas, which is to be hosted in Indore, India, from January 8 to 10, 2023 to mark the contribution of the overseas Indian community to the development of India. It also commemorates the return of the greatest Indian pravasi of all times, Mahatma Gandhi from South Africa to India on Jan 9, 1915. Everybody is looking to participate enthusiastically in the Bhartiya Pravasi Divas (PBD) 2023. We are looking forward to it and we are certain that the largest delegation coming into the PBD will be from the US West coast. It is organized every two years, and this is the largest gathering of the Indian diaspora, said Amb. Prasad.
The theme of BPD Convention 2023 is ‘Diaspora: Reliable partners for India’s progress in Amrit Kaal’ that will be held between January 8-10, 2023 and will see the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurating the event on January 9, 2023.
