Description: Neelam Deo's job has expanded to include the business and financial sectors.

Transcript: The job of a consul general traditionally was to look after the citizens of its own country and to provide the visa and consular services that visitors to your country required. Over the years, of course, this job has grown and encompassed many other areas of work. And this being New York with its large and extremely important financial sector, my job in New York has been to interface with the banking sector, the financial sector, investors in other words, to have them take a look at investing in India. And we do this through arranging interface between different industry groups through visiting dignitaries from India, policy makers, addressing investors in New York. That’s a big part of it. The other element has been through, again, because of New York’s particular character to organize a number of cultural events, so we have Indian classical dance, music, film, book readings, so all the areas in which Indian culture is both rich and vibrant in the modern era. We also, because the Eastern Seaboard and the area that we cover from this consulate, New York itself, Pennsylvania, Ohio are rich in universities and schools. So that’s one of the other parts of our job which I have particularly enjoyed, which is interacting and building up relationships with the faculty and also with students of Indian origin. And that’s the job we do.

Recorded on: 8/4/08