people
5 Minutes with
I N T E R V I E W
The Honorable Anupam Ray
Consul General of India , Consulate General of India , Houston
By Katia Hadjiyska , iF Magazine Contributing Reporter / EnCourage Group Owner
Katia : First , tell us a little about yourself and walk us through your background .
The Honorable Anupam Ray : I am a career diplomat and I have been in the Indian Foreign Service for about 23 years . I have the rank of Joint Secretary in the government of India which is basically an Ambassador rank . The Indian Foreign Service is an unusual Foreign Service in the sense that it is probably the most difficult Foreign Service to get into in the world . We recruit about 20-30 people annually from amongst about a million applicants through an exam which lasts about a year , so the acceptance rate is amongst the lowest in the world .
42 iF Magazine | February 2017
I trained as a physician and have a medical degree . I completed my basic medical degree and then did a year-long residency in neurosurgery . I failed the exam twice and passed it on the third time and got into the Foreign Service when I was 27 years old in 1994 . Since then I have been posted in Germany and in Bangladesh , and have been very lucky and have handled very important , tough jobs . I have been lucky in some ways and unlucky in others . Unlucky because I have never really had a job that has been easy . I have never had a job at which at the end of the day I felt that my work was done .
Katia : What does a Consul General in your capacity do ?
There are some unique aspects to my position in terms of diplomacy and the evolving role of diplomatic outposts and what diplomacy does . It is
also unique because sovereignty is a prerequisite of diplomacy ; diplomacy is a function of sovereignty . India has been sovereign for only 70 years now , but in that 70 years we have seen some of the most dramatic changes and successes that a nation has gone through in history . We began as a colony and if a person was born in India in 1947 , they would have been born in one of the poorest countries in the world , having barely gotten independence from Britain . Today , India is the fastest growing economy in the world and the third largest in Purchasing Power Parity terms . We are on track to become the largest economy in the world . We are on track to become the next great power , which is permanent membership in the U . N . Security Council . We have become one of the largest sources of intellectual property in the world and