Hyderabad: Joel Reifman, the United States of America’s Consul-General at Hyderabad since August 2019, enters for an exclusive interview with Deccan Chronicle in the Cupertino Room on the ground floor of the sprawling campus on Chiran Fort Lane, with a broad smile.
He is a soft-spoken person, who puts people at ease immediately, but with notable career experiences as Charge d’ Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Asmara, Eritrea and deputy chief of Mission in Dhaka, and as an assistant staff judge advocate in the U.S. Air Force, his sharp, meticulous mind is at work, noticing the tiniest detail.
Speaking with Sriram Karri in his first media interaction since the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic struck the world, Reifman opened up a plethora of relevant issues from the strategic significance and growing strength of the Indo-US relationship across broad areas, to how the US consulate continues to manage the Covid challenge, to how different states he operates in are shaping for the new post Covid era to his growing love for all things Indian – food, travel, culture, movies, music and all. Excerpts.
Q. You have been a strong advocate and supporter of the India-US relationships becoming stronger. At a broad level, how do you characterise the ties between our two nations currently?
A. The relationship between the USA and India, often dubbed the friendship of the world’s oldest and largest democracies, will define the century and the world. The Covid pandemic demonstrated how we two nations have each other’s back. During the first wave, when the US was facing its worst crisis, India sent us life-saving medicines and chemicals to help our people. During the second Covid wave, when India was facing its worst public health crisis, the US stood by India and sent over $226 million worth of emergency supplies.
Our bilateral relationship is crucial to the world, and we must remember Hyderabad produces nearly a third of the world’s vaccines – so it is the Indo-US partnership that is central to ensuring the entire world is vaccinated and comes out of the pandemic. The US has invested over $50 million in Biological E, a Hyderabad-headquartered business, to help India produce over one billion vaccines for the Indo-Pacific region.
Q. How does the US perceive India, beyond the business relationship aspect, especially in the strategic affairs slice?
A. India is very crucial to the US and the world in strategic affairs. We are crucial partners in the Quad – along with Australia and Japan – to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific. India and America are resolved to ensure the rule of law is applied fairly and transparently across our shared region.
Q. Coming to the pandemic, how did the US consulate fare? How were the services?
A. I am proud of the service our staff provided to constituencies across the three states of India that the consulate covers – Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. Throughout the pandemic, my staff have ensured that not even for a single day were the services and work of the consulate shut down. We followed the Covid protocols, and several members of the staff did suffer from the ailment too, but we continued to work and serve.
One of the biggest priorities was visas for students, because any delay would hurt the academic plans. Indians comprise one of the biggest demographics of students coming to the US, now over 20 per cent of all international students on American campuses. Mission India processed over 1,00,000 student visas last year, record breaking levels despite the pandemic. We processed more than 40,000 student visas during the October to December quarter alone. Then there are the visas for skilled workers, which is growing too.
There are lots of Indian-born and people of Indian origin who are American citizens, with Telugu reportedly being the fastest growing spoken language in the US. There is also an ever-growing US expatriate population in Hyderabad as our business engagement grows multi-fold – the consulate has had to handle all citizen affairs too.
Q. How big is the US business engagement with Hyderabad (and Telangana)?
A. We have very robust engagement in Hyderabad. The US investments and businesses are growing and expanding. Hyderabad boasts of having the presence of the biggest American tech giants – Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook – and, for some of them, Hyderabad is their largest presence worldwide outside the US. Goldman Sachs, MassMutual, and Amazon recently opened new facilities. In pharma, Biological E is making vaccines for Johnson & Johnson.
We have other kinds of connections. The amazing couple behind Bharat Biotech (Dr Krishna and Suchitra Ella) are alums from the University of Wisconsin. Kind of a rival to the University of Michigan, where I graduated from – but there are several from Michigan here too, including Tollywood producer D. Suresh Babu and B.V.R. Mohan Reddy.
In defence, the Tata Aerospace Limited and Boeing have a huge JV, building Apache helicopter fuselages. Lockheed Martin also has a JV with Tata Aerospace Limited which makes wings of F16 fighter planes in Hyderabad and components for the C-130 cargo plane empennages.
Q. How does the progress on people-to-people cooperation you had said when you joined continue to be a significant priority?
A. Beyond business and defence, and government-to-government engagements, we are doing several joint military exercises with the Eastern Naval Command in Vizag. We also give top focus to people-to-people exchanges. We are pleased that our nearly $300 million new consulate facility is coming up wonderfully and is expected to be inaugurated before the end of the year in Nanakramguda (Financial District). With 54 visa windows, it is a down payment on the relationship between the United States and the people of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Odisha. And instead of flattening the iconic rocks of our region, we are retaining them out of commitment to the environment. We are also working with the Aga Khan Foundation at the Qutub Shahi Tombs on restoration and preservation by surveying the site, preserving the tombs of courtiers Premamati and Tiramati, and preserving the water (step) wells so that the entire complex will be self-sufficient in water. The Consulate also co-sponsored the Hyderabad International Jazz Festival at the Qutub Shahi Tombs in December.
We work with Prajwala to tackle human trafficking. Guests and officials who come to Hyderabad from other offices are amazed to learn that the Hyderabadi culture and heritage precedes even the Mughals in India.
Q. How is your work in Andhra Pradesh? What have been your interactions with the political leadership of Telangana, AP and Odisha?
A. Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy joined us in opening our American Corner in Vizag at Andhra University – only the third American Corner in India (the other two are in Hyderabad and Ahmedabad). It’s a great forum for discussing issues of mutual interest, enhancing English language skills, and learning about studying in the United States.
Q. On interactions with the political leaders…
A. (Hmmm). We have a good relationship with all three state governments in our district. Telangana is a dream for us to work with. Because of their internal work division, we interact more with Minister K. T. Rama Rao, who is very bold and visionary. The Chief Minister has an ambitious agenda to transform the state. Telangana is known for a strong business-friendly policy environment. We have over $5 billion direct investments by American firms in the state and many, many more billions of the foreign direct investment in Telangana is from U.S. sources.
We are also upbeat about Andhra Pradesh. The Chief Minister there has a strong vision for his state, and we share his government’s hopes for further development of Andhra Pradesh. I believe more American businesses, like Cargill’s recent purchase of an edible oil plant in Nellore, will soon start to look at its advantages, including its long coastline, and potential. We believe it is the state with a great future in the coming decade.
Finally, we enjoy good relations with the government of Odisha, which is well known across India and internationally for their good governance model, especially in areas of healthcare and disaster management/relief. Given that Odisha is amongst the poorer states in India, the Chief Minister there has made progress in poverty alleviation, education and healthcare.
Q. How much of Hyderabad could you explore? Have you travelled to new places, tried new foods and watched new movies?
A. Both for work, and in leisure, I have travelled a lot during the last two years, whenever the pandemic was not severe. My husband and I travelled to the Araku Valley in Andhra Pradesh by train and enjoyed its amazing coffee. What a great tourist attraction it is… and I am glad to be the first US consul general to visit there. I love the Ramoji Film City and took pics of me with the Bahubali sword but I know how much I pale in comparison with Prabhas.
I love the south Indian breakfast, idli and dosas, especially with local coconut and peanut chutneys. I had the pleasure of cooking Biryani with Nawab Mehboob Ali Khan and love to follow it up with Khubani ka Meetha – and now you know why my diet and fitness goals are a bit off target (laughs).
I am watching, like everyone else, a lot of OTT – Netflix and Amazon. Made in Heaven – I love – and I had the honor to engage its star, Sobhita Dhulipala, in a Facebook chat in 2020.
