Diwali Reception for Mayor Turner at CG’s India House
City of Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner with Indian Consul General Anupam Ray and his wife Dr. Amit Goldberg at a Diwali reception in Turner’s honor at the CG’s residence on Friday, November 11.
By Jawahar Malhotra
HOUSTON: Ever since he has taken over as the new Consul General of India, Anupam Ray has been busy hosting many dignitaries, community celebrities, Indian national holidays and attending as many events as he can possibly squeeze into his crowded schedule, which also includes visiting the other areas of the country that the consulate serves. He has even renamed his official residence “India House” in alignment with what many other Indian missions overseas are called, (especially the Indian mission in London which is famously known as India House), which often has led to confusion with the India House community center on West Bellfort!
This past Friday, November 11, Ray and his charming wife Amit Goldberg welcomed the Mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner to their India House off Chimney Rock to a packed house of local Indian guests who sat on chairs in the large backyard of the residence. He referred to India as the fastest growing economy in the world and added “we are beginning to see the growth of multinationals in the US, and Houston has some of them.” He introduced several Indian multinational corporations as well as smaller Indian companies doing business in the Bayou City, and presented them to Turner as they stood on the covered back porch of the house.
Turner lit the ceremonial Diwali diyas as Goldberg and the couple’s young son joined in. Several community activists spoke briefly, including Dr. Durga Agrawal of India House, Ramesh Shah of Ekal Vidyalaya, Murad Ajani, Partha Chatterjee of Durga Bari Society, Murad Ajani and Abeezar Tyebji, CEO, Shipcom Wireless. Turner lauded Houston’s diversity and said he hoped to go on a trade mission to India in 2017. “Diversity in reality is a descriptive term. Being inclusive is an action word,” he said.
Among the Indian businesses, Rajarshi Gupta of Indian Oil Corporation Videsh, said that energy has created a strong bond between the two nations and leading Indian oil companies such as IOC, ONGC, and GAIL have set up offices here to pursue opportunities. Rahul Chaturvedi of Reliance Holding USA, said the company has 100 employees here and is investing billions of dollars to build the largest carriers to transport LNG from Houston to India as well as is looking into opening a telecomm business in Dallas. Other speakers were Joseph Alenchery of Infosys; Pooja Shah of Tata Consulting Services; Hetal Shah of Mahindra and Arvindam Bhatacharya of Schlumberger.
Jagdip Ahluwalia, Executive Director, Indo-American Chamber of Commerce acknowledged that “He (Consul General Ray) sees this as the next wave of business opportunity between India and Houston.” Sanjay Ramabhadran, a former president of IACCGH who is on the METRO Board and is Chairperson of the Houston Mayor’s International Trade & Development Council (South Asia), closed out the evening telling the Mayor who is a baseball fan that “the Cleveland Indians may have lost the World Series but the Indo-Americans in Greater Houston area consistently keep winning home runs!”