Helping manage the vice president’s office back in Delhi over the last five years, Nagesh Singh saw himself as a gatekeeper, letting in a select few visitors focused on very specific issues.
He’s had to change that mindset in just a few months as India‘s consul general in Atlanta, where his constituency spans nearly 100,000 people from all walks of life – including citizens and members of his country’s huge diaspora, which numbers nearly 3 million in the United States alone.
“You have to be a people person. You have to attend to everyone. You can’t say that you don’t deal with X issue or Y issue,” he said of his new gig, noting that one day spent with the CEO of a multinational company might give way to helping an illegal immigrant return home on the next.
Consuls general promote investment and attend a lot of events, but they’re also charged with less-visible tasks like processing travel documents and assisting their incarcerated countrymen. India’s consulate has to deal with specific categories of non-citizen members of its diaspora that other countries don’t have, such as People of Indian Origin (PIOs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCI).
[pullquote]The consulate treats everyone the same — citizen or not, he said.[/pullquote]
The consulate treats everyone the same — citizen or not, he said.
“It’s our job to have an open door and let everyone in and attend to their needs,” he told Global Atlanta in an interview.
Of course, Mr. Singh is no stranger to interpersonal diplomacy. He has had stints at embassies in West Africa and in Paris, and he worked at the United Nations immediately before returning to Delhi.
But he admits Atlanta is a change of pace. Indians coming to the U.S. usually don’t miss the crowds they left back home in the world’s second most populous nation, but the laid-back pace and the sound of crickets and birds chirping in the evening is taking some getting used to – in a good way, he said.
The job itself has been anything but calm in his first few months, as Mr. Singh has begun to make his rounds throughout the community, attending functions around town by the various Indian groups and holding personal meetings at the palatial consulate general in Sandy Springs. On July 11, for instance, the Indo-American Communities of Georgia, put on a welcome gala attended by 360 people.
Mr. Singh had just a few days of overlap with his predecessor, Ajit Kumar, but the man who opened the consulate here in 2012 didn’t leave him without some words of wisdom. Adhering to a longstanding Indian diplomatic tradition, Mr. Kumar left Mr. Singh a “handover note,” a comprehensive document outlining pointers about interacting with the community.
“What is most important is the individuals, the people, because the rest of the things – how trade is going, what are the impediments, what are the social issues affecting the community, what are the issues with the United States government – that is all well-documented; that is not a problem,” he said. “The biggest challenge is that you arrive in a new place, and given that the time is about three to four years, you can’t reach out to everyone.”
On the business front, Mr. Singh sees huge potential for increased interaction between India and the Southeast. He is charged with expanding the regional reach of the “Make in India” campaign laid out by Prime Minister Narenda Modi in hopes of attracting more foreign manufacturing.
Mr. Singh, an economist by training, is under no illusions about the challenges of doing business in his home country. He concedes that foreign investors have faced hurdles but says the country is on an upward swing, driven largely by a change in the national mood accomplished by Mr. Modi’s election a year ago.
“The sentiment has changed, and that is the precursor to other changes that will happen in the real market,” he said.
But Mr. Singh cautioned against over-optimism, noting that some India watchers have had faced hard landing coming down from their heady expectations of the prime minister’s first year. “Realism has dawned, and that realism is that we are on the right path.”
Reforms are still needed in areas like land ownership and labor, he said. The government at the moment is working to implement a national reform that would unify taxes on goods and services across the country’s 29 states. The proposal, opposed by some state leaders threatened by loss of revenue, would reduce logistics costs and eliminate a major hurdle for investors looking to set up supply chains in the country.
But according to Mr. Singh’s observations, the local diaspora isn’t waiting for such reforms to begin availing themselves of the opportunities. He was pleasantly surprised to already have heard many examples of Indians finding success back home. One has set up a leather factory in Chennai, while a software firm has put a new office in Bangalore.
“They are investing, and they are realizing that outsourcing stuff from back home helps them. It’s happening,” he said.
Still, the links could be stronger, he noted. The defense sector and the already-strong educational links between the U.S. and India provide an opportunity to transition from the “transactional” trade of the past to making products together and training a new generation of Indian workers to move into skilled jobs it needs to create for its large young population.
“In the long run, as far as my country is concerned, investment in our human resources in terms of good health, education, innovation, technology – that’s going to be our future if we are to realize our destiny,” he said.
To enable these connections, especially from the Southeast, the Indian community has been calling for the restoration of a nonstop flight to Mumbai from Atlanta, which only lasted a short while after being introduced in 2008.
“Whoever has come to meet me has been telling me, ‘You must do what you can to convince Delta to restart the direct flight,’” he said.
Currently, Atlanta travelers have to transfer in Europe or the Middle East, which could get a bit easier when Turkish Airlines and Qatar Airways begin nonstop flights to Atlanta next year. Both carriers have strong connections to various Indian cities.
Mr. Singh said there are estimates that every Indian in the U.S. has ties to an estimated 50 family members and friends back home. More diaspora ties equal a better US-India relationship, not only due to enhanced trade, but because of improved perceptions.
“They get a very positive narrative back home: ‘This is the land of opportunity. We came with five dollars and today we are what we are,’” he said. “That’s the genius of this country.”
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