New Consul General of India Amit Kumar interacts with Indian American Covid-19 Task Force

Newly appointed Consul General of India Mr. Amit Kumar hit the ground running by extensively interacting with the vanguard of frontline Indian Task Force leaders for Covid-19 at an introductory conference call convened under the aegis of National Council of Asian Indian Associations [NCAIA] led by Harish Kolasani on April 7, 2020 in Chicago with more than 50 Midwest community Organization leaders virtually joining together in extending a warm welcome to Ambassador rank Amit Kumar as he takes charge as the new Consul General of India in Chicago.

The Task Force encompassing some of the elite community leaders exhaustively appraised Ambassador Amit Kumar on the broad range of  efforts undertaken by them in the Midwestern states in robust pursuit of mobilizing resources, providing critical medical supplies where needed, providing personal protective equipment, guidance in navigating through government loans/grants, providing accommodations to the displaced students and caring for the most vulnerable senior citizens among the many activities by delivering food and medicines.

Each member of the task force enlightened Consul General Amit Kumar about their role and how their role impacted the lives of the people affected by this pandemic and pledged of their relentless determination to help flatten the curve.

This collective partnership between the prominent community leaders of major organizations and Consul General Amit Kumar clearly created a huge synergy enabling a large-scale mobilization of medical help, counsel, aid, guidance to those affected by the pandemic outbreak. This collective undertaking by the Task Force kicking into battle mode have fanned across the communities unleashing huge reservoirs of resources which includes physicians dispensing valuable medical advice, providing personal protective equipment  and other proactive measures to reduce the spread of Covid-19; business leaders providing ways to salvage businesses, bankers providing assistance with loans/grants, legal scholars providing free legal assistance especially in immigration matters, women’s group providing yeoman support services, charitable organizations providing free meals, wellness check, meditation, hospitality industry providing free hotel room accommodations to displaced students, restaurants providing free food, religious places of worship deploying volunteers to help senior citizens, offering shelter, spiritual counseling all the while aggressively launching educational campaign on the principles of mitigation,   – creating a huge  impact on the lives of not just the Indian American community, but also the spectrum of the mainstream communities.

Consul General Amit Kumar effusively praised the initiatives, efforts and valuable contributions made by the members of the Indian task force and their organizations in helping local authorities and communities in their fight against the pandemic and particularly in providing invaluable assistance at the time of dire abject need. Consul General heard each speaker’s brief presentations on behalf of their organizations as to how they are stepping up to play their role in complementing the efforts of the mission envisaged by the task force and, more importantly, how their organizations are positively impacting human lives. Consul General Amit Kumar said he would be an active partner with the community in this mission and said he looked forward to personally meeting each member of the task force when life is restored to normalcy. He assured each organization of his full-unstinted support in meeting the goals of this important mission and pledged cooperation of his office.

Consul General Amit Kumar briefed members about the steps taken by the Embassy & Consulates to assist Indians. He assured that the Consulate will continue to work with all concerned in addressing the evolving situation. He also advised Members to closely follow Consulate’s website and social media platforms for updates / advisories and to contact Consulate’s helplines in case of any emergency.

Harish Kolasani, President of NCAIA in his statement said, “Never in the history there was such a large convergence of community of leaders coming together in such unprecedented unity to rally in solidarity in fighting this explosive pandemic in our communities in America and this, he added, represents a shining testament to the extraordinary human spirit of the Indian Americans. Harish Kolasani outlined how the pandemic outbreak motivated the creation of the task force with immediate-past Consul General Sudhakar Dalela who lent tremendous help and guidance in rendering support in formulating the task force with a mission-oriented purpose and added we have seamlessly transitioned from former Consul General Sudhakar Dalela to Ambassador Amit Kumar in continuing this ongoing critical mission. Harish Kolasani said that currently NCAIA is intensely working on creating a Helpline and a dedicated Website.

Among those who participated in the conference call  include Dr. Bharat Barai of Indiana, Dr. Suresh Reddy of AAPI, Dr. Sreenivas Reddy of Illinois State Medical Board, Dr. Anuja Gupta of WE group, Dr. Vemuri Murthy, Chicago Medical Society, Dr. Paul Nguyen, SCARF Helpline, Dr.Niranjana Shah,IMA,  Malini Vaidyanathan, Air-India, Amit Jhingran, SBI, Harish Bhatt, Pharma National Org, Iftekhar Shareef, Sunil Shah & Gurmeet Singh of FIA,  Keerthi Kumar Ravoori of IABC, Chandini Duvuri, Dr. Raju Chintala of Indiana, Dr. Harjinder Khaira,  Asha Oroskar, Nirav Patel, Krishna Bansal, Hema Reddy Rachmale of Michigan, Nimish Jani Schaumburg Township Trustee, Rita/Sanjeev Singh, Vinesh Virani of AOL, Anu Malhotra of Meditation group,  Kalpesh Joshi of AAHOA, Ratna/Girish Kapur, Satish Nanjappa of St.Louis, Nayan Mehta of BAPS, Rajinder Singh Mago of Asian Coalition, Parmesh Reddy of ATA, Ashok Kolla of TANA, Purnima Nath of Milwaukee, Hemant Brahmbhatt of Hi India, Suresh Bodiwala of Asian Media USA, Uma Katiki, Ram Saini, Rakesh Malhotra, Bhargavi Nattem, Dinakar Karumuri & Sundar Dittakavi of CAA,  Rajiv Sharma of Reliance Global, Deepa Salem of Chinmaya Mission,  Sanjay Pandey, Venkat G, TAGC, Usha Pariti of Balaji Temple, Dr. Sriram Sonty of SAPNA, Ajeeet Singh, Santosh Kumar of MAFS, Gladson Varghese, Usha Bhaskar US Kids for Water, Kishen Kavikondala, Jay Sehgal of IOWA, Vidya Joshi, Aparna Ayyalraju, TTA, Hina Trivedi of Lions Club, Nagesh of SwadeshMedia, Shabir Patel, Haribhai Patel of Senior Citizens Ctr, Roger Chawla, Daftaris, Pradeep Kandimalla, Ulka Nagarkar, Herald Figuerdo, Muthuswamy Selvaraj, Laddi Singh, Roopa Karri, Ramakrishna K, Himanshu Pathak from President of Iowa Indian Assn and others. Two active participants from the office of the Indian Consulate who are providing prompt and effective guidance include Consul Ranjit Singh and Consul P.K.Misra with the full complement of the Indian Consulate staff.

Keerthi Kumar Ravoori

Media Manager, Indian American Task Force on Covid-19