Consulate General of France : 10 years in Bengaluru and Hyderabad!
Bangalore, July 6, 2021
This year as the Consulate General of France in Bangalore completes 10 years of its presence in the city and covering a jurisdiction of three Southern States Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, we lean on the very special occasion of the French National Day to announce this.
The traditional reception bringing together our friends of Indian, French and other nationalities will be, this year also, converted into a virtual showcase of all the facets of this friendship – fine arts, music and cinema, business and investments, environment, education, gastronomy, politics, space and science.
A video for the 10th anniversary of the Consulate General of France as well as an e-book will be launched in this backdrop with the same objective of highlighting the activities and milestones of our start-up office.
This video allows everybody to understand what a Consulate General does, with diversified departments such as the visa department that allows mobility of students, businessmen and tourists from India to France, the Trade and Investment Bureau of Business France that assists French firms to enter the Indian market, the Scientific and Academic office that promotes collaborations and exchange programs, and the French Space Agency CNES that extends support in every pioneering space programme of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
This short film also includes testimonials from Mrs. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Executive Chairperson of Biocon Limited and recipient of the Legion d’Honneur, highest French Civilian award. She underlines the relevance of the French motto in the current context. Mr. N R Narayana Murthy, CEO/Founder, Ex-Chairman of Infosys and yet another recipient of the Legion d’Honneur also participated as an alumni of the Alliance Française de Bangalore and wished the French Consulate on its 10th anniversary. And finally, Mr. Mohandas Pai, Chairman of Manipal Global Education, highlights how India can benefit from France and its innovation ecosystem.
This anniversary allows also to underline that the network of Alliance Française in Bangalore and Hyderabad have had such a positive image and impact for the last 40 and 50 years respectively, that the Consulate General of France has had it quite easy to establish its credentials with the local governments and public.
Alongside the French institutional network stand a number of French firms Capgemini and Safran that contributed in making medical aids reach Indian authorities and eventually hospitals. Both Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences and Narayana Health have been recipients of such assistance in the form of oxygen concentrators and other medical equipment.
In addition, Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI) would receive two oxygen generators and Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee medical college and Research Institute Charaka Super Specialty Hospital, one.
Besides, French companies continue to invest, this year too, significant amount of money through CSR to help their communities and local NGOs.
This year, the French Consulate in Bangalore has supplied study material to the children sheltered by NGO Vonisha, an NGO certified and aided by Objectif France Inde (OFI).
French National Day or Storming of Bastille Day is celebrated every year on 14th July, symbolically marking the end of monarchy in France on 14th July 1789, following the historic French Revolution, and the beginning of a republic.
We still remember the Indian army paraded for the first time on foreign soil on the invitation of the French government, underscoring warm relations between the two countries, on the occasion of the Bastille Day 2009. That confidence has only multiplied over the years and resulted in several Indo-French cooperation programs.
The excellent bilateral relation shared between both France and India reflects locally in all three states of the jurisdiction. It demonstrated in the recently concluded visit of the Hon’ble French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Mr. Jean-Yves Le Drian, who made a specific stopover of two days in Bangalore.
Furthermore, France is currently ramping up its presence in Hyderabad. Apart from the existence of a French academic and cultural centre for the last 40 years, the Alliance Française de Hyderabad now presided by an IAS stalwart, Mr. Jayesh Ranjan, a Honorary Consul should be soon appointed to Hyderabad.
The Consul General, Dr. Marjorie Vanbaelinghem, who completes her term in India this year, stated in the video message released on occasion of the 14th of July:
“Our collective resilience to the pandemic, which made our consular representation the only one to remain open and operational throughout the crisis, gives me great pride. Likewise, I am very impressed with the contribution to our solidarity program by our French firms, which is definitely not new as they have been involved, since long, through the medium of their corporate social responsibility initiatives. Their assistance has been critical in these last few months, especially in delivering oxygen generators to hospitals in the region. All those actions, however, only reflected the courage and solidarity that Indian citizens displayed in Karnataka, le Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
2021 is an extraordinary year for this Consulate General as we celebrated the completion of 10 years of France’s institutional presence in these three southern states. A lot has been accomplished in the last decade, but given the imense potential of the country in so many sectors, there is so much more to do together. I thank you all who make this Indo-French relation thrive at the local level. I thank all my interlocutors from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.”