Ambassador David Puig visits the State of Karnataka
New Delhi – The Ambassador of the Dominican Republic to the Republic of India, H.E. David Puig, conducted a five-day visit to the State of Karnataka, from the 6th to the of 10th June 2022, with the intention of strengthening the political, educational and commercial ties between the Dominican Republic and Karnataka. During his visit, Ambassador was accompanied by First Secretary Bianca Baez, who is in charge of academic affairs.
His Excellency held meetings in Bangalore with the Chief Minister, Mr. Basavaraj Bommai; the Minister of Higher Education, IT, BT, ST, Skill Development, Entrepreneurship and Livelihood, Dr. Ashwath Narayan C N and the Additional Chief Secretary to the Government, Department of Electronics, IT, BT and ST, Dr. E.V. Ramana Reddy.
During these conversations with the state officials, Ambassador Puig highlighted the national and international recognition that the State of Karnataka has on matters related to IT, AI, Space, innovation and entrepreneurship and expressed the willingness of the Dominican government to extend its relations with India, through the expansion of collaborations with state level institutions.
Ambassador Puig also visited the main offices of the International Space Research Organization (ISRO) where he met with its director, Mr. S. Somanath, Anitha Nandini, director of policies and international cooperation, Mr. D. Goweisankar, director of the office of international and interinstitutional cooperation and Mr. Shantanu Bharawdekar, scientific secretary. That same day Ambassador met Mr. M. Sankaran, the director of the U.R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC).
In the course of these meetings Ambassador Puig expressed the interest of the Dominican Republic to cooperate with ISRO on training, data sharing and on the constitution of the Dominican Republic Space Agency.
During his 5 day visit to Karnataka, His Excellency also had the opportunity to meet with Mr. Umakant Soni, and Mr. Subhashis Banerjee, co-founders of Artpark, a technology lab focused on AI and robotics.
On the topic of higher education, Ambassador Puig held several meetings with renowned educational institutes of Bangalore, among them the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT- Bangalore), and the Indian Institute of Management (IIM- Bangalore). During these encounters, Ambassador Puig expressed the interest on working to achieve that Dominican students come to India to pursue their masters and PHD studies, via scholarships given by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (MESCYT).
Moreover, Ambassador also met with Mr. Harish Hande, founder and president of the Selco Foundation, which provides low income communities in remote areas, the possibility to access electricity via solar panels. This foundation has a special bond with the Dominican Republic, as its founder got inspiration to create this project while visiting the Dominican Republic in 1991 and being exposed to the work of engineer Richard Hansen, who was providing electricity to low income Dominicans via solar energy.
On commercial matters, Ambassador met with the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industries of Karnataka (FKCCI), where he discussed with its directors and members, the latest business-driven incentives offered by the Dominican government and the favourable investment climate provided by the country's economic stability.