The India Association of greater Boston hosted a webinar with the Sandeep Chakravorthy, the honorable counsel general of India to address the COVID crises. The event was moderated by the IAGB President, Mr. Sanjay Gowda. 

The Consul General opened the talk with giving an overview of all the initiatives undertaken by the Indian Government to address the Pandemic. He then proceeded to address the concerns regarding Consulate services and other issues regarding Indians stranded in the US due to the travel ban. 

"New York as you know has a lockdown and hence we cannot go to the office. This limits our ability to process OCI Visa and other applications since that cannot be done remotely," said the Counsel General "Based on the situation we will look into extending the validity of an OCI card that may otherwise be expired. We have already extended it to June"

"We have been working hard to handle issues faced by Indian citizens whether they are students or senior citizens. We have created a PRAMIT app to address a lot of the concerns https://pramit.indiainnewyork.gov.in/"

"Medical queries from stranded seniors has been a big request. We have processed over 5000 requests. We partner with local organizations like IAGB, AAPI and others to provide the best solutions for all" said the Consul General

"We are hosting several virtual events. Some of them are informational ones with doctors, lawyers etc. Others are cultural in nature. We even have a story time for children"

There were questions from New Hampshire Latha Mangipudi on the possibility of using Indian Government's help in bringing PPEs to the US. Several other topics of interest were raised during the over 1 hr 30 min of the event. 

It was very informative. It was truly inspirational to see how hard the consulate is working in these challenging times to make a difference