After Helping Organize G20, New Indian Consul General Lands in Atlanta 

India’s new top diplomat in the Southeast has arrived in Atlanta, fresh off a stint helping organize the country’s G20 summit during its presidency of the multilateral club of influential economies. 

Consul General Ramesh Babu Lakshmanan replaces Swati Kulkarni, whose departure was announced more than a year ago but occurred only in October as she headed back to Delhi. 

In less than a month in his new role, Mr. Lakshmanan has visited Florida, Tennessee and South Carolina, taking part in Diwali celebrations in the latter two states and meeting with South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.). 

He has also been meeting consistently with Indian community organizations and has taken part in sessions on boosting trade and investment between the Southeast U.S. and India with various chambers and business groups.

This week, the Consulate’s account on X had him garlanding the Gandhi statue at the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Change in downtown Atlanta. 

According to a biography listed on the consulate’s website, the posting is Mr. Lakshmanan’s first time serving as head of a diplomatic mission since joining the Ministry of External Affairs in 2005, though he has served in various positions in Indian missions in Dushanbe, Tajikistan; Moscow, Paris, and Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he handled political, cultural and commercial aspects of India’s relationship with its island neighbor. Posted in New Delhi between 2011-13, he was a desk officer focused on Southern Africa. 

More recently, he was tasked with managing the operational aspects of G20 meetings as India hosted the group’s annual summit in September. (Delhi holds the presidency until Brazil takes over at the end of this month). 

Before that, he headed up the ministry’s Rapid Response Division and managed the control room for what became known as Operation Ganga, an effort to evacuate Indian citizens from Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in February 2022. 

In previous roles, Mr. Lakshmanan has headed up administration and human resources and policy planning for the ministry. 

Learn more about the consulate at its website and see Mr. Lakshmanan’s full bio here.