EDISON, NJ (TIP): More than six hundred Indian American community members gathered at the ornate room at Royal Albert’s Palace in Edison, New Jersey on Sunday, March 13 to extend a warm welcome to the new Consul General., Ambassador Riva Ganguly Das who has succeeded a popular Consul General Dnyaneshwar M Mulay.

Ambassador Das joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1986. She is a Post Graduate in Political Science from Delhi University. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, she was a Lecturer at Delhi University.

Ambassador Das had her first posting in Spain. Thereafter, she was at Headquarters dealing with External Publicity, Nepal and Passport/Visa work. She was Head of the Cultural Wing of the Indian High Commission in Dhaka. After her return from Dhaka, she took over as Director at the United Nations Economic and Social Affairs Division and participated in environmental negotiations, particularly climate change. She was the Deputy Chief of Mission in the Embassy of India, The Hague. She was also the Alternate Permanent Representative of India to the Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons at The Hague. She served as Consul General of India in Shanghai from 2008 to 2012. After her return from China, she headed the Public Diplomacy Division in the Ministry of External Affairs and she was in charge of the Latin America & Caribbean Division in the Ministry of External Affairs. Before joining as Consul General of India in New York, she was Ambassador of India to Romania, Albania & Moldova with residence in Bucharest.

At least two dozen speakers representing cultural and social organizations of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut spoke highly about the Consul General who expressed her deep gratitude to the members of the community for working as unofficial ambassadors of India strengthening bilateral relations between the US and India. Representatives of American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, Asian American Hotel Owners Association, Telugu Association of North America, Federation of Indian Associations and Share and Care Foundationwere among the many more present on the occasion.

Dr. Manoj Kumar Mahapatra, Deputy Consul General spoke about the working at the Consulate. He informed the audience that more than one thousand documents were processed every day at the consulate. Dr. Mahapatrasaid that his office was processing emergency visa applications in 15 minutes while other applications took just two hours.

The Consul General assured that her office was committed to helping the community in whatever way possible and permissible. She said she would ensure the applicants seeking emergency documents were served without delay. At the same time, she said she would need the community’s support to deliver the results the community expected of the Consulate.