Indian Consulate, GOPIO-Manhattan Organize Meet and Greet for Indian Students

Consul General of India in New York Randhir Kumar Jaiswal addresses a meet and greet event for Indian students Sept. 17. GOPIO-Manhattan, whose chairman is Indian American Thomas Abraham, organized the event in cooperation with the Consulate General of India in New York. (photo provided)

India-West Staff Reporter

The Global Organization of People of Indian Origin in Manhattan, New York, in cooperation with the Consulate General of India in New York, held a meet and greet Sept. 17 for Indian students studying in Northeast U.S. to connect them to the community and provide mentoring opportunities, as well as to raise awareness of Consular services.

After welcoming the students, Ambassador Randhir Kumar Jaiswal, chief guest/host for the evening, highlighted their goal to expand this program to include more students – from the pool of 200,000 students who come to the U.S. for further studies – to attend in-person interactive sessions and gain exposure to various services offered by the Consulate, from registration at the Consular portal to cultural events to mental health support initiatives.

Ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu, via a video message, welcomed the students and commented: “Indian Students continue to be a strong bridge between India and USA… The education and knowledge partnership are an area that hold great potential in our bilateral relations…We have an active student hub and a dedicated student wing at the Embassy. You can count on them for any assistance.”

The program started with a welcome by GOPIO International chairman Dr. Thomas Abraham, who also serves as an advisor to GOPIO-Manhattan. The Indian American encouraged the speakers to mentor, motivate and guide the students.

“In the 1960s and ‘70s when a foreign student joined a university, he/she was given host family, now with connected world and social media, the host family concept went away and the 4.5 million Indian Americans could serve as the host family to the new students,” he said.

Several GOPIO officeholders spoke at the event as did the students. The event also featured several panels on F1, H-1B, OPT, Green Card, etc.

Speakers included Prof. Rajasekhar Vangapaty, GOPIO-Manhattan executive vice president; Abha Kumar, business transformation leader; Prasan Kumar, senior vice president and strategy director at Publicis Group and lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian New York College; Neil Datta, head of Due Diligence at Forbes Family Trust and co-founder of Meritas; Joe Simon, CIO at Entain; Aseem Trivedi, manager of data analytics at Ernst and Young; Ankit Chaudhari, associate vice president at JP Morgan Chase; and Shivender Sofat, president of GOPIO-Manhattan.

A Q & A session rounded out the event.