The joy of seeing the national flag fly is always special. There are numerous occasions when you get to see the flag flying high, especially during international sporting events and international conventions.

There is always a wow feeling within, for the athlete or for the occasion, due to which the flag gets captured across visuals. The wish is to always witness many more similar occasions.

In August 2023, I got an opportunity to work for the Embassy of India in Dublin, Ireland. The time went flying from August to December 2023. It was an eventful experience working five months towards enhancing the bilateral relations. For me, it was a great addition to the experience gathered along the years. After working for the Tata and Mahindra, a rare chance to work for the Government of India.

I was fortunate to have had enough freedom to express my ideas and working style during this tenure. However, you need the support of the team to get things rolling. The first week at the Embassy gave me the chance to understand the team. It was an action-packed couple of days with the Millet Awareness Program, followed by the Independence Day celebrations. In those two days, I witnessed everyone pitching in to support each other irrespective of the nature or stature of the work. This gave me the confidence that there will be people to support whenever I will need it.

In the course of my tenure, I was part of 20+ events. The requirement for each of them were unique yet there was an underlying commonality for all of them. This helped us to get the basic arrangements ready irrespective of the event. The events were diverse and covered commerce, arts, education, cultural events, etc. This was in addition to the online lecture series which took place in an auto mode under the supervision of people in charge of them and Ayurveda related discussions, commemorating the Constitution Day, etc.

I was given the opportunity to help conceptualise some of the events. Some of them included the round table discussion for Indian entrepreneurs in Ireland, a special event to welcome the Indian students pursuing higher education in Ireland, team building activity for Startup founders with an opportunity for the students to interact with them, connecting with the media fraternity, etc.

The focus and direction was provided by my superior towards enhancing the bilateral trade . This eventually was rolled out into two special monthly events called the ‘Indian State Commercial Event Series’ and the ‘Buyer Seller Event Series’. The idea for the State Commercial Series was to give opportunity to respective states in India to present their investment portfolios along with trade, tourism to the businesses in Ireland. In similar manner, Buyer Seller Series focused on specific segments like agriculture. It was great to see the context set by Deputy Ambassador for these events. The best part for me was to carefully listen to the opening speech and concluding remarks by the Ambassador. The content was really insightful. The presentations and discussions by the attendees also were incredible and to know in detail about the various state departments, investments, trade, multiple sectors, businesses, etc. gave a great knowledge gaining perspective.

Culture and art is an integral part of any country. I will also add cuisine to this list. The Embassy recently started a series called the ‘Indian Showcase Series’ were artists are given a platform to exhibit their work. This has so far covered painting, photography, ceramic works, etc. The talent and work exhibited were extraordinary.

The ‘Cultural Event Series’ is a monthly event where the representatives in Ireland from an Indian state will be presenting their culture which includes handicrafts, clothing, cuisine and dance forms. This series has garnered great attention and the grandeur of this has been growing in stature each month. This again gave me an opportunity to learn a lot about the nuances, specialities , origin stories of some famous as well as little known things from the nooks and corners of India.

One event which gave me a chance to learn about other nations was the ‘International Charity Bazaar’. A great event which saw participation from Indian Embassy under the supervision of people in charge.

The number of applications received daily for passport related work, OCI, etc. gives a heads up in regard with the growing Indian diaspora in Ireland. As mentioned in the recent articles by news channels, the Indian students are one of the highest foreign in takes in Ireland and the number of Indian citizens in Ireland across various sectors are also growing steadily. The macro economic and political scenarios makes Ireland a top choice for studies and work.

The amount of trade queries received from Indian businesses to establish connections in Ireland is a clear indicator of the potential of India Ireland bilateral trade. It is no wonder that August 2023 and October 2023 witnessed the imports from India to Ireland cross 100 Mn. This is one of the highest monthly imports in the last decade as per the Central Statistics Office reports.

Seeds will take time to grow and become trees. I clearly witnessed the work done by the staff at the Embassy to provide an amazing launch pad for the future endeavours. There are people working behind the scene as well who put in extra effort to ensure things go smooth in the front end. It is not easy to manage the show with the limited people and resources. However, problems are opportunities and sometimes it gives you the extra zeal to get going.

The market is available to be tapped and lot of opportunities for businesses from either countries to work together in trade, culture, art, food and the dynamic startup sector. In the coming years, it will be interesting to observe the growth story of India in Ireland.

I was fortunate to get the opportunity to get associated with the Embassy of India. There were occasions when everything went as planned and there were a few occasions where it did not get the expected outcome. That all added to the experience and learning. The exposure was amazing, got a chance to meet a lot of interesting people across events and gather a wealth of knowledge. It will be always an honour and proud moment to see the national flag flying high.

_______________________________________________________________________

All the event related pics used are from the Social media posts of Indian Embassy :).