Karnataka asks US to open a consulate in Bengaluru for ease of Visa

BENGALURU: The State Government has sought for a United States of America Consulate to be established in Bengaluru for ease of Visa process to the "promised land". On Tuesday, at a meeting between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee and US Ambassador to India Richard Rahul Verma the proposal for establishing a consulate was mooted. The State is seeking the consualte office in order to ease the travel duration and time duration to Chennai for most Karnataka citizens who intend to travel to the US. With a lot of traffic from Karnataka going to the US, the State cited it best for the setting up of an office in the City. It is said the US Delegation also cited that they were considering the proposal seriously from their end.. Meanwhile, seeking a deeper and much more productive bilateral relationship with the United States of America, Karnataka asked the Americans to be a partner nation in the State's endeavours to increase investment opportunities here. "Invest Karnataka 2016 is being held in Bengaluru from February 3 to 5. I request the Ambassador to once again take-up the matter of partnering United States of America in Invest Karnataka as Partner Country and bring delegations during the event from USA, so that, they will be in a position to exploit the full potential that exists for investment," said Siddaramaiah in his request to bring more investments from the US. Later, Verma spoke to the media and said: "We had a very fruitful talk with the Chief Minister and spoke about the similarities between both the USA and Karnataka. With a lot of US companies having invested and set up their base here, we talked about the US and Karnataka relationaships and to work towards strengthening the same." USA is the second largest investor in Karnataka with 12 per cent amounting to U S Dollars 1,451.25 Million of the total Foreign Direct Investment in Karnataka, as on December 2013. 12. Today trade between the U.S. and India is nearly $100 billion a year, a record high. Bengaluru, the United States' largest trading partner and host to 300 U.S. companies, is a large part of that success. On Tuesday morning, prior to the Verma courteseay call, a delegation of aircraft manufacturers, Boeing, also met with the Industries and Commerce department for more investments in the State. -TOI