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India opens new consular application centre in Dallas to serve growing diaspora

India opens new consular application centre in Dallas to serve growing diaspora

Indian Express3 days ago
The Consulate General of India in Houston has announced the launch of a new Indian Consular Application Centre (ICAC) in Dallas, Texas, bringing essential consular services closer to thousands of Indian-origin residents in the Dallas-Fort Worth region.
The new centre, located at 8360 Lyndon B Johnson Freeway, Suite A-230, was virtually inaugurated by India's Ambassador to the United States Vinay Kwatra. The Dallas ceremony was led by Consul General D C Manjunath, who was joined by local elected officials and Indian-American community members.
The Dallas ICAC is among nine such centres being opened across the United States to enhance accessibility to consular services. Other locations include Boston, Columbus, Detroit, Edison, Orlando, Raleigh, San Jose and an upcoming centre in Los Angeles.
Applying for consular services? The new ICACs in Raleigh, Orlando, LA, San Jose, Dallas, Detroit, Columbus, Edison, and Boston will make it easier starting this August, 2025 in USA! #ConsularAccess #IndiaInUSA@MEAIndia@IndianEmbassyUS@diaspora_india pic.twitter.com/cMQVF1IRmO
— India in Houston (@cgihou) August 2, 2025
'The launch of these new consular application centres across the US is part of our mission to serve the Indian diaspora more effectively by bringing services closer to their homes,' Ambassador Kwatra said during the virtual inauguration. 'We remain committed to strengthening the ties between India and its global community.'
Consul General D C Manjunath said, 'Dallas has a large and dynamic Indian community. Opening this ICAC means residents can now access vital consular services quickly without travelling to Houston. It's truly bringing the Consulate to your doorstep.'
Local elected officials also welcomed the move. Texas State Representative Vikki Goodwin commented, 'This new consular centre is an important resource for our Indian-American neighbours, making government services more accessible and convenient.'
Dallas Indian Association president Rajesh Mehta said, 'The ICAC is a game changer for Dallas-area residents. It shows India's dedication to its diaspora and makes a real difference in people's lives.'
The centre offers services including passport, visa, Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) applications, power of attorney, birth and marriage certificates, attestations, police clearance certificates for foreign nationals, No Obligation to Return to India (NORI), and life certificates, among others.
The Dallas ICAC is open Monday through Saturday.
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Vedanta continues winning street confidence: Brokerages forecast strong earnings ahead
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The lessons IT companies, employees, HEIs and students need to learn from the recent wave of job cuts
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Profiles of employees affected and implications In the past, job cuts were influenced by sub-par performance of individual employees, whereas the recent wave of layoffs has significantly impacted specific segments of the IT workforce. While the younger and less experienced employees have the relevant skills and are often able to be more easily placed on projects, senior resources face distinct challenges. So, the people most affected by the job cuts are middle-level executives whose roles are deemed redundant due to reasons such as automation, non-deployability on billable projects, skill mismatch, cost considerations and structural changes by way of reduction of layers in the organisation. This creates a paradox wherein years of accumulated experience, traditionally considered to be a valuable asset, becomes a weakness due to non-alignment with evolving project demands. This trend poses a significant challenge for a large segment of the established IT workforce, signalling a shift in the traditional career progression model, where career mobility and growth solely depend on skill relevance on a continuous basis rather than tenure. Experienced professionals face the challenge of upgrading their skills quickly or seek opportunities in other industries or geographies. In some companies, entry-level employees, including trainees who did not meet the new, tougher assessment norms were affected. In some cases, the job roles cut relate to technical support functions due to automation. Non-customer-facing and administrative non-revenue generating roles have been affected. How companies have been affected While the job cuts will result in short-term gains to the companies in terms of cost savings and improved operational efficiencies, they dent the image and result in loss of goodwill built over time. They will affect the ability of the companies to attract good talent in future. The departure of experienced employees will result in loss of valuable insights and institutional knowledge essential for fostering creativity and innovation. These pervasive psychological impacts on both the laid-off and surviving employees reveal significant hidden costs, which may be termed the 'invisible cost' of layoffs. Impact on morale The recent layoff wave has caused immense financial hardship and damaged the morale of the affected employees who have a lot of family obligations. Unlike in the West, the affected employees in India do not have access to social security benefits nor adequate job opportunities, thereby making the situation more stressful. The retained employees will face enormous stress due to fears of job insecurity and possibility of additional workload due to reduced staff, which may also lead to burnout and poor mental health. Lessons for IT companies Historically, Indian IT firms competed in the global market, by leveraging their large, cost-effective workforce, wherein the growth was driven by headcount additions and utilization rates. Over the last decade (2014-2024), the top four Indian IT players collectively saw a 187% increase in revenue, followed by 206% increase in employee cost, which as a percentage of revenue has increased from 48% in 2014 to 57% in 2024, implying that manpower productivity has been relatively stagnant. This model is susceptible to global macroeconomic uncertainties, with the clients pushing for significant price reductions (20-30%) and cutting down on discretionary IT spending, impacting revenue growth. A fundamental shift in the IT services business model seems to be imminent by decoupling headcount growth from corresponding revenue contributions. The new driver of the future growth of the industry will be increased manpower productivity, enabled by automation and AI. While it is imperative for the IT companies to adopt multifaceted strategies to remain competitive and capitalize on the opportunities presented by AI and related technologies, companies that invested in strategic workforce planning and effective upskilling programs saw better alignment between talent supply and demand and faster redeployment of at-risk staff in emerging roles. Companies should proactively rotate and redeploy the resources across functions/projects so as to provide contemporary hands-on project skills to all employees. They may also consider flexi-resourcing models, which may include part-time, gig and consulting options, to the affected employees before resorting to job cuts. Impact of reskilling initiatives As per the recent annual reports of the large IT companies, over 90% of the employees went through upskilling programs in the last three years. 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HEIs should focus on skills The industry's pivot from volume-based to value-based services and the explicit demand for niche, high-value AI and data analysis skills suggest the imperative to focus on skills, as the traditional academic degrees alone are no longer sufficient for career success. This is all the more important as the industry expects fresh graduates to be 'ready-to-deploy' resources and the traditional traditional structured training to freshers has been dispensed with. In view of the large shortage of industry experienced teachers, Higher Educational Institutions can leverage the availability of displaced industry professionals to engage them as Professors of Practice to impart students with the industry-ready skills. 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Role of industry associations and government Addressing the current challenges and preventing similar situations in the future requires a collaborative and multi-pronged approach, involving industry associations, academia and the Government of India. Industry associations like Nasscom can play a crucial role in tracking industry trends globally and provide foresight so as to enable the companies to put together strategic resourcing and reskilling plans. The government may collaborate with industry and academia for launching nationwide reskilling drives, especially targeting mid-career professionals and fresh graduates. The Ministry of Education and Ministry of Information Technology may collaborate with industry and HEIs to offer teacher training programs for displaced people interested in teaching so that they can transition smoothly into their second careers. Way ahead The Indian IT industry is going through a massive reset due to the unprecedented disruption driven by digital transformation, which is bound to cause a lot of stress all around. The path forward requires concerted and co-ordinated efforts from the industry and academia, duly supported by the government, so as to navigate the current turbulence deftly, mitigate the adverse impacts of workforce transformation, and position themselves for sustainable growth in the challenging future ahead. (Prof O. R. S. Rao is the Chancellor of the ICFAI University, Sikkim. Views are personal)

Don't give China a pass and burn relationship with strong ally like India: Nikki Haley on Trump's tariff threat
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Don't give China a pass and burn relationship with strong ally like India: Nikki Haley on Trump's tariff threat

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