are home to one of the most tolerant nations in the world . We are a home to Hinduism and Buddhism . Christians have been in India since Christ ’ s birth . Jews have never been persecuted in India and they have been there for 2000 years . This is an extraordinary nation – it is the most diverse nation in the world .
Nobody expected us to survive . In the course of a lifetime we managed to transform it into a modern , very fast growing , and extremely capable nation . That has an impact on diplomacy and how we see ourselves , how the world sees us , and what a government like ours expects from its diplomats .
I shared this lengthy background with you to demonstrate that what a Consul General of India did 20 years ago is very different than what a Consul General does today , and will be very different from what a Consul General will do in 5 years . India is changing so rapidly .
We essentially function as a sub- Embassy . Normally Consulates are set up to tend to the consular needs of a business community and to a diaspora , but we actually run a fullscale economic diplomacy operation , a full political operation , and we are trying to do more and more cultural work . Because of social media today the meaning of press has changed , so I run a fairly active social media operation on my own . That is all in addition to running a very large consular operation in which we perform about 80,000 consular activities per year . We attending to a diaspora of about half a million Indians .
Katia : What parts of America are covered by the consulate ?
The Honorable Anupam Ray : We essentially cover Texas and the states surrounding it – New Mexico , Colorado , Oklahoma , Arkansas , Louisiana , Kansas , and Nebraska . The bulk of our operations – 80 % -90 % – are in Texas . I spend some time in Colorado and some in Louisiana . We also have a very large Indian operation and Indian business community in Arkansas .
Katia : What are some past , present , and future goals for India ’ s relationship with Houston ?
The Honorable Anupam Ray : Houston is the 4th largest city of the United States and Texas is one of the most dynamic parts of not just the United States ’ but the world ’ s economy . This is a very large economic entity and in today ’ s world political clout comes from economics , so as India grows we expect that every part of our relationship with Houston is going to grow .
Some of the things that we are work-
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