“NOTHING BEATS THE REWARD OF SITTING BEHIND INDIA’S FLAG AND REPRESENTING THE COUNTRY,” SAYS Ms. APOORVA SRIVASTAVA CONSUL GENERAL OF INDIA-TORONTO, CANADA

The Voice of Canada takes pride by carrying the exclusive views of the well-known personalities in our esteemed Newspaper who have an enriched experience during the service career of a high order. It gives me heightened feeling when I share the elucidated experiences of Ms. Apoorva Srivastava (IFS) India’s Consul General in Toronto, Canada with my readers. Her brilliant diplomatic career is an example of dedication and devotion of service towards the Nation to serve the people. Ms. Apoorva Srivastava, after joining the Indian Foreign Service in 2001 served twice in Indian Embassy in Paris, Indian Embassy in Kathmandu. Before being appointed as India’s Consulate General in Toronto she has also rendered her services with the Minister of External Affairs from January 2017 to August 2019.

The edited excerpts:-

The Journey in Diplomatic Career

To be in the service of one’s nation and to serve the people is a reward in itself. The Indian Foreign Service (IFS) offers tremendous opportunities for personal growth, of new experiences and it is a very empowering career option. My journey in it has been one of discovery and growth. You can well imagine that life in Kathmandu is very different from a life in Paris or a life in Toronto. But if one embraces the immersion in different cultures, the experience becomes educative and eriching. In the end, nothing beats the reward of sitting behind India’s flag and representing the country.

The interesting Facets of Life in 19 years of a diplomatic career

The last 19 years in my career have been immensely rewarding and satisfying. I have had varied experiences both professionally and personally. Whether helping to enhance bilateral political and trade relations, serving Indian nationals abroad, promoting Indian culture in the Missions where I have served, or being part of high-level visits-both of Indian Heads of State/Government, Ministers abroad or foreign dignitaries coming to India; and organizing various Summits held in India like SAARC Summit, BRICS Summit, India-Africa Forum Summit, Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas and Heart of Asia Summit while I was posted in India, each experience has been invaluable.

One of the most enriching experiences has been working as the staff officer of the External Affairs Minister of India- with Smt. Sushma Swaraj for two and a half years and then around 4 months with Dr. S. Jaishankar. It was great exposure for me. I am looking forward to my tenure in Toronto to be as fruitful as my earlier postings.

Role as Consul General of India in Toronto

As India’s Consul General in Toronto I head the Consulate here. Our Consulate, of course, provides the basic functions that all diplomatic posts are mandated to offer.

First and foremost, the Consulate exists to explain and advance India’s policies and actions to the broadest possible audience in the area of Canada under our consular jurisdiction. Second, The Consulate reports to the High Commission in Ottawa and the MEA in Delhi about developments and opinions in Toronto (and the other areas that we cover). Third, we work to advance bilateral trade and commercial activities. The bilateral trade between India and Canada is CAD 10.3 billion and there is a lot of scope to further enhance it. Among the most important tasks here, we provide a range of consular services to citizens of India, people of Indian origin, and to the Canadian public. We actively look after the interest of the Indian community here, provide emergency services and assistance. Recently we have been assisting with the travel of Indians back to India as regular flights have been suspended due to COVID-19 pandemic. Plenty of Indians have availed the Vande Bharat Mission flights to India, and the Consulate has been working 24*7 for facilitating these flights. Despite the risks and restrictions, the Consulate team is at the airport to assist and organize the flights.

We also promote Indian culture in Canada- the Indian Film-Festival, the Jaipur Literature Festival, the Yoga Day Celebrations, the Panorama India Parade, and Republic Day- the Consulate is actively associated with all of them.

Promoting India-Canada collaboration in  higher education is another important task. We now have 225,000 students from India in various Canadian colleges and Universities. Indian faculty members are playing an important role in driving forward education growth in Canada and we have hundreds of tie-ups between Indian and Canadian institutions for joint research, exchanges, and collaborations. This is an exciting field and as GTA and Ontario region has the highest concentration of Canadian institutions, the scale of our responsibilities is large too.

Promoting relations with the persons of Indian origin, the Indian diaspora, is an important part of our job. With over a million PIOs in the GTA area, this task assumes special significance for us.

We undertake these activities by building strong relationships throughout the province with federal, provincial, and local government officials, as well as with a myriad of commercial interests, non-governmental organizations, service clubs, academia, artistic groups, and others.

Steps to strengthen International collaboration between India and Canada on health & economic crisis

Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi and His Excellency Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada have spoken number of times since the Pandemic brokeout.

As liberal democracies and open market economies, these countries have much in common and we have much to learn from each other’s experience. We have been lucky to have excellent guidance and instructions from our political leadership which is committed to deepening the ties between the two countries.

We have assisted each other in the evacuation of our citizens due to the pandemic. India responded with alacrity to the request from Canada for supplies of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and Paracetamol. Our Prime Minister thanked the Canadian leadership for taking excellent care of our students during these difficult times.

When the PM’s last spoke, they updated each other about the evolving situation related to the COVID-19 pandemic in their countries, and also discussed the possibilities of international collaboration to address the health and economic crisis. Our PMs have talked of our cooperation, especially through collaboration in research and technology aimed at finding a vaccine or therapeutic solutions to COVID-19. They agreed that the India-Canada partnership can be a force for good in the post COVID world, including for advancing humanitarian values in the global discourse.

COVID-19 and impact on the Economy of Nations

COVID-19 is a global pandemic. It concerns the entire humanity. And we will be able to deal with it only by cooperating on a global scale. India and Canada have continuously been engaged in discussions on coordinating our global response to the crisis. Historically, sharp slumps are followed by periods of boom. We are confident that we will come out stronger and there will be a sharp rise in commercial exchanges on the other side. The need is to start preparing for riding the post-COVID 19 waves. We are encouraging Canadian companies to look at India as a dependable supplier in global value chains, as a destination for manufacturing and as a profitable investment destination. The COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated the fragility of having a one-point supply dependency, and India, with its youthful and skilled population, competitive labour rates, a growing domestic market and, democratic and rulebased governance system is the obvious choice. In this task, I would like to enlist the support of the Chambers of Commerce in Canada and of the Indo-Canadian Business

community. We would be pursuing commercial engagement aggressively once the crisis is over but even now we are open for business and would be very happy to guide and support Canadian business as they explore possibilities in India.

India’s competitive advantage in terms of land and labour availability and exports has always been a big hope but it is now seeing a turn as global manufacturers long-settled elsewhere are looking to diversify their manufacturing base. India has scale advantage and key success factors locally are also improving. Much groundwork has been laid and new policy changes are being made even as you print this. New schemes like Production-linked initiative (PLI), Scheme for promotion of manufacturing of electronics components and semiconductors (SPECS), and Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMC) 2.0 introduced by India are game-changers. Several measures had been announced in budget 2020, like Abolishing Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT), Increase in foreign portfolio investors’ limit, and lowering of corporate taxes, along with measures to improve ease of doing business make India more attractive destination for investments than ever.

To make the investments from Canada more attractive, we have made further changes and pension funds from Canada will get the same benefits as extended to sovereign wealth funds and the pass-through for REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts)/InvITs(Infrastructure Investment Trusts) with exemption from DDT will also continue.

Steps for the welfare and financial support for Indian Students in Canada

The Canadian Government has offered several schemes for the benefit of students. You must remember that Indian students bring in almost $7 billion as tuition fees alone every year to Canada. As paying students, our students can also avail of some of these benefits if they fulfill the criteria. There are some schemes offered by the provincial governments as well for the welfare of the students.

Besides, several colleges and universities have set-up bursaries to provide immediate support to students. The colleges and universities are providing counselling to their students on how to best avail of these resources. These should be the first place for students to ask about the benefits they are entitled to. In addition, the Student’s Associations also provide advice to students. I am also glad to share that the Indian community in Canada has been supporting the needy students with groceries, cooked meals, and even legal counselling. The Consulate has also been helping the students with the help of local government, educational institutions, and local Indian communities.

The harassment and exploitation of Indian Brides and deserted spouses in India & Canada

The Bill has not been passed yet, so it is not a law as of now. However, ensuring the safety of Indian women is a matter of high priority for us. We are already working closely with Canadian authorities in this regard and making all our efforts to sensitize them about the fraud marriage issue and ex-party divorce being granted by the local courts to Indian nationals who got married in India. The Canadian laws are very strict and there is no tolerance for any kind of violence and the system is in place for providing requisite legal/shelter assistance to the victims of domestic violence. Any Indian woman in trouble here can and should reach out immediately to the police and also approach us in the Consulate. The Canadian Mission in India has been requested to be very careful in granting visas in case of marriages.

But the most effective way to deal with this issue is having a greater awareness of laws and not to rush into dubious marriages on basis of promises of immigration etc.

India and Canada already have a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT). This allows the person in India to file a case in India for fraud and cheating, and once the Indian court requests the Canadian government, the action, under Canadian law can be taken up here. But it requires formally starting a process in India. Merely writing petitions is not enough.

Maintaining a balance between career and family life

Fortunately, I and my husband Anshuman Gaur have been posted together since we joined the service in 2001. We have been together in New Delhi, Paris, and Kathmandu. This is the first time that we are living in two separate cities, but we try and meet at least once a month. However, both of us have had very busy assignments and it has been extremely difficult to manage the work-life balance, especially in New Delhi when both of us were staff-officers of the Ministers. We tried our best to manage our out-station travels in a way that at least one of us stays with our daughters.

The leisure pursuits and hobbies

The job of Indian CG in Toronto is pretty much 24×7, so there is very little leisure time available. But whatever time I get, I like to spend it with my two lovely daughters and my pet dog. I also enjoy reading, travelling, gardening, and once in awhile binge-watching movies and TV series.

Pearls of wisdom for the new entrants in Indian Foreign Service

As I have said earlier, this is a wonderful career. You get to serve your country in a wide variety of situations. There is varied work- you can switch between commercial works, to consular work to political work. You get to travel, meet interesting people, visit different cultures- it expands your horizons and improves you as a person. Being a diplomat for your country is a big honour, and very few career options can match what the IFS offers.