Mr. Binaya Srikanta Pradhan took over as Consul General of India at New York on January 15, 2024. He is a career diplomat of the 2002 batch of the Indian Foreign Service. He speaks English, Russian, Hindi, and Odiya languages. His diplomatic career includes senior roles in Indian Embassies in Moscow, Turkmenistan, and Pakistan from 2004 to 2012. During 2012-14, he managed India’s relations with Afghanistan and Iran at the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi.
From 2014 to 2019, Mr. Pradhan served as the Chief of Staff to the Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Government of India. His international engagements extended to being the Deputy Chief of Mission in the Embassy of India, Moscow, from June 2019 to July 2021.
Prior to his current role as Consul General of India, New York, he held the position of High Commissioner of India to Tanzania and Permanent Representative to the East African Community (EAC) from August 2021 to January 2024. During this period India- Tanzania relationship was elevated to ‘Strategic Partnership’ and the first overseas campus of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras in Zanzibar, Tanzania was set up.
Mr. Pradhan demonstrates a keen interest in economic and energy diplomacy. Beyond his diplomatic pursuits, he finds enjoyment in playing golf. Mr. Pradhan is married to Ms. Monalisa and they are proud parents of two daughters, Dibyanshi and Diya.
Four days after joining the present position, on the 19th January, 2024, in an interview with the Editor of The Indian Panorama Prof. Indrajit S Saluja, Consul General Pradhan spelt out in brief his priorities which included nourishing and strengthening the already strong bonds between India and the US, and exploring new areas of cooperation and relationship in diverse fields of economy, trade, technology, and culture etc. Mr. Pradhan added that serving the Indian Diaspora remained the primary focused concern of the Consulate. The strengthening of the multi-stake holders relationship will be another priority, he said.
Here is the second part of the long interview . The first one dealt with Mr. Pradhan’s views on India’s foreign policy, situations in India’s neighborhood, and India’s relations with the neighboring countries.
In the second part here , Mr. Pradhan speaks about the contribution of the Indian American Diaspora in strengthening India-US relations and in promoting business and cultural relations between the two countries, and about the consular services.
Here are the excerpts.
TIP: What do you feel about the consulate here?
CG: I would say I’m familiar with New York, I have come to this place, I guess, eight or nine times in past, always as part of a government delegation, for three days four days. So, while the city is not new for me, working here, as a diplomat, is a new experience. I’m really happy that the team here is quite strong. The team is quite experienced, and both , the Indian colleagues and the local colleagues form a robust team. I’m really happy that they’re all committed. I found that each one of them is committed. They have understood the larger objective that we are here to serve. We are here to further the agenda of the government, which is to bring friendship between the two people and the two countries. Good thing is that in this team, everybody has understood that well,
I’m so happy to see that the number of complaints about our consular services has gone down drastically. I saw two people giving very positive comments about consular services on social media.
TIP : You have a lot of experience about business development, trade and commerce. Because in Tanzania, as you just now said, that it is the Indians, particularly the Gujaratis, and they in fact control the economy of that country if I’m not mistaken. They play a very important role. And it’s the same thing here. We have the Indian diaspora here, controlling levers of local economy in quite a few areas. And then there is a wider interest of promotion of trade and commerce between India and the US. It has been happening here, and it has accelerated over the years. And I’m sure you are the one who is going to probably look into how to further accelerate it. Do you have any roadmap for that?
CG: It would be not correct for me to say that I have a roadmap at this stage. Like I said, you know, it’s very early, but I understand the task. If we have a target of $500 billion of trade between India and United States, we need to do better. We need to bring the Indian business communities closer to the American business communities. We have to find the complementarities. We have to find the gaps where we can export more. We have to find gaps where we can connect the American business with Indian business in a win win situation. We have to get the developments reviewed at very high level. But having said that, I think, in order to make it a truly 21st century relationship we have to have stronger economic enhancement, stronger technology engagement between India and the United States. I understand the 10 states that I deal with in this region, are very prominent players in this respect. I look forward to working with the business communities here very closely. I want to work with the Indian business communities very closely who are stakeholders here. As you know, we have prominent Indian companies more than 150 who are present here. So, I want to identify areas where our intervention is required which can actually lead to some kind of enhancement of trade and investment engagement. But it’s not one sided. When I talk about economic engagement I don’t mean to indicate about Americans investing in India or I don’t mean to Indians exporting to United States. I actually look for a Win -Win partnership, because if it is to sustain, if it is to be a long-term sustainable process, it has to be both ways.
TIP: Your “One District One Product” is also working very well. I’m told that probably in the coming month or so, you’re going to focus on jute products from India.
CG: Yes. When we bring a product, we have to sustain the focus on that. If we do it for a year and forget the next year it won’t work. So, I feel that the focus that we put on coffee, we will continue that this year as well. We found there is good demand for those products which are ODOP products and we plan to continue the focus for five six years on each product so that people develop familiarity, and the market is created here. We will not be shifting every year or jumping from one to another. We will keep adding new products, though.
TIP: Wonderful strategy! I don’t mean to tire you so much. But there are a couple of questions that I would be bothering you with. One is about our young people, particularly the students. Luckily, this jurisdiction of yours has probably the best universities known in the US. And there is a diverse kind of education available here. Some specialize in technology, some specialize in medicine and some specialize in finance, some in law, and obviously, because of so many good universities here, we have a number of students preferring to come to this area, and we have a large population of Indian students here. Do you have any plans of providing them better facilities or integrating them in such a way that they become a powerful instrument of change here, and if they go back to India, in India.
CG: I’m happy that you asked me this question. In fact, today morning, we were discussing this issue. We were dealing with two Indian students who passed away in Connecticut. I was basically part of the kind of process to send their mortal remains back to India. But that was a kind of occasion when we were discussing about the student community from India. As you rightly said, we have very well-known universities and the number of students in each of the 10 states would be quite high. It’s more than 100,000 students. And they remain a very powerful constituency for us. I feel they have to be better connected with us. We have good association with different student bodies in different universities. But these days, thanks to social media, thanks to other innovative means, thanks to the possibility of using friendly associations to connect with them, the scope of connecting with Indian students is much better. We plan to work on that, in order to support the newcomers, at least. When somebody comes to United States, he’s coming to a different culture, he’s coming to a different place. After a year, he doesn’t require anybody’s support; he will be able to navigate his way through. But I think in the initial months one requires a certain amount of handholding. I was so happy to see that many students, former students, many young people, many associations are working in districts and many people are creating videos, which are very popular on social media about how a newcomer should navigate his way through in a university campus or how you adjust to the climate here, how you adapt to the lifestyle here. But we also want to be part of this fraternity to work with Indian students. We want to be connected with them , the student bodies. They come with a lot of new ideas. We want to make them a part of the team in a way that they feel a part of the team India here. In a sense, they also, at the end of the day, knowingly, or unknowingly, they are doing the same job that we are doing. If we are here with the larger objective of bringing the two countries together, deepening the relationship, they are doing on the ground in a different way. They are connected to us in a more impactful manner. So, I plan to visit different universities here. I plan to meet the student bodies. I have asked my team that we should be connected to them through social media, the student leaders, the student influencers, people who are doing good work in the youth space, we should be connected to them. I know that there are many Indian organizations who are working in that area. We will also try to take them along with us. This will remain a priority for me to remain connected to the youth, with the youth, the students.
TIP: I think GOPIO is one such organization. They have always been facilitating a reception for newcomers among the students. I have a suggestion here which you could give a thought to. Like we have Pravasi Bhartiya Divas in India, you may think of a kind of Indian students youth festival or something like that, once a year or if you want to have it at two or three different locations, then maybe you can increase the frequency. This is one way to integrate them as Indians. Number two, it will promote Indian cultural values. And they can, of course, be inviting mainstream Americans that will provide greater understanding among the American youth about Indian culture.
CG: That’s a good suggestion. And when I said that, you just came to my mind. This could work. It’s a good idea. And when I say engagement with youth, I mean, engagement with youth, not only of Indian youth, but also you know, the American heroes. And what you said makes sense, you know At the end of the day, if you are thinking of forging a partnership which would be a defining partnership of 21st century, you cannot do that without the youth, absolutely. They’re an important part.
TIP: I’m glad you understand that importance. And coming to our women here. They have a lot many problems, like domestic violence, and there are women who are battered; they are subjected to all kinds of blackmail, etc. And over the years, of course, consulate has done a lot to take care of them. But still a lot needs to be done. And maybe you could think of ways and means to further help them. Many do not know that Consulate can help them. I don’t know how you would like to let everybody know that the consulate is there to help them out. That is one area where probably much more needs to be done than has hitherto been done.
CG: When it comes to consular services, we are a service providing organization, you know. I would say that we also have gone through different processes. But I would say the issue of Indian nationals having difficulties here, whether it is women or whether it is asylum seekers, whether it is any kind of person, end of the day, we are here as an extension of government of India. Our primary job is to serve our own people. That remains our priority. What I have understood from my colleagues is that we are now having consular camps in different parts of the states. We are reaching out to different communities, doing our consular camps in gurdwaras doing our consular camps in other places. I think we can think of also reaching out to those places where we are yet to reach so that people don’t have to come to Manhattan. Rather we go there , attend to them in their own places. If we still come across complaints, our objective would be to still work towards reaching that zero-complaint stage.
TIP: What would you like to say to the readers of The Indian Panorama?
CG: It is wonderful to be in New York. I have come here with a lot of excitement, enthusiasm and a commitment that I’ll be part of the team, working with you very closely to bring our two countries together to bring the two people together, bringing the Indian consulate closer to the Indian community. Be always there with you and also working very closely with you.
TIP: Thank you so much, sir, for having spoken with the Indian panorama. Thank you for your time.
CG: Thank you for your time.
