INDIA PHOTOS
GALLERY
RICHARD R. VERMA U.S. Ambassador to India January 2015-2017
SALIL KADER
The interview with Ambassador Richard Verma was featured in the March/April 2016 issue of SPAN magazine, in English, Hindi and Urdu, and the SPAN website (https://span.state.gov).
Ambassador Richard Verma speaks at the inauguration of a new class of the Access English Microscholarship Program at Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences in Bhubaneswar in January 2016.
Ambassador Richard R. Verma is the first Indian American ambassador to India and has had a long and distinguished career in the U.S. government and the private sector. This includes serving as Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs in the Obama Administration, where he led the U.S. State Department’s efforts on Capitol Hill; working in the U.S. Senate as the Senior National Security Advisor to the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid; and working in the House of Representatives for Chairman of the Defense Appropriations Committee Jack Murtha. A veteran of the U.S. Air Force where he served on active duty as a Judge Advocate, Ambassador Verma was also a member of the U.S. Secretary of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board from 2011 to 2014.
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An exclusive interview with SPAN March/April 2016
s U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said at your swearing-in, your appointment as the first Indian American ambassador to India represents a “homecoming of enormous consequences.” What special perspective does your Indian origin bring to your work? I really appreciate Secretary Kerry noting that it is a homecoming. My parents emigrated in the early 1960’s and I am very proud of my Northern India roots. When I think about their immigrant experience, which was similar to millions of others who come to the United States as immigrants, they really started from scratch. Education was a big part of their life, but never did they or me, frankly, dream that I would come back to India in this capacity. It’s particularly inspiring when I think about their stories, how hard they worked and the opportunities that they were given. That’s why I am especially committed to ensuring that the programs we do reach people directly, to make sure they have the same opportunities to fulfil their dreams as well. I know President Barack Obama said the same thing when he was here in India. So this homecoming really does bring it together many
decades later. I am also proud to be serving as the American Ambassador at a time when U.S.-India relations are at a high point. The credit for that goes to all the people who have worked so hard on this over the years—all the former ambassadors, U.S. foreign service officers, and various elements of our government working with the agencies and individuals of the Indian government. Are U.S.-India ties heading in the direction you envisioned when you arrived in New Delhi? Yes. When I arrived a year ago, preparations were well underway for the visits of the President and the Secretary of State in two weeks. The Secretary was coming for the Vibrant Gujarat Summit, and the President was coming to be the chief guest of Republic Day. It was a chaotic and exciting time. It built on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to Washington, D.C. four months prior, so we were the beneficiaries of two big summits within a fourmonth period. My goal was to make sure that we delivered on all the commitments that were in the long joint statements; to really live up to the promises and expecta3
RAJA BHATTACHARYA
State Department photo
You have traveled extensively across Above: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets Ambassador Richard Verma’s family before the ambassador’s swearing-in ceremony at the State Department in Washington, D.C., in December 2014. Above right: Ambassador Verma meets family members during a trip to Apra, Punjab, in October 2015. Right: Ambassador Verma meets President Barack Obama at the White House in December 2014.
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er and mother’s house in Jalandhar and to the village where my father grew up, giving the commencement address at DAV College in Punjab where he graduated from, and seeing where they lived and where they taught. Meeting the people who came out to tell me that they knew my grandmother, my dad or my mother, and what impact they had on them—that was really special and not something I will ever forget.
Courtesy U.S. Consulate General Chennai
India. Which has been your most memorable visit? That’s such a difficult question because we’ve had so many great trips: From Assam, where I saw what we were doing on wildlife protection for elephants, rhinos and tigers, down to Kochi where we flew out to an aircraft carrier with Indian naval officers, to Kolkata, where we sat down with American women who had started an NGO to help Indian women who wanted to break free from the sex trafficking industry through learning skills like knitting and making handicrafts. I could go on and on about the different and amazing places I’ve traveled in India. Perhaps the most memorable trip, again tapping into the homecoming theme, was going back to my grandmoth-
Students from India in U.S. higher education increased to 132,888 in the 2014-15 academic year. Why do you think more Indian students should plan on pursuing higher studies in the United States? What benefits does the United States offer Indian students that other countries don’t? Official White House photo by PETE SOUZA
tions. We have done a pretty good job. We, along with our Indian counterparts, have pushed aggressively, to increase trade and economic investment, promote job creation, deepen our security partnership, and make sure we live up to the big promise of energy and civil nuke cooperation, as well as in education, culture, science, and so much more. Overall, we had the opportunity to make a lot of progress this year. We also did something a little different, which is, once the dust settled, we started our own robust travel, and engaged with the public in parts of the country where we hadn’t been in a long time. We have given dozens of speeches and ramped up our outreach—all with the goal of connecting with people, explaining what this relationship is about, tapping into the enthusiasm of U.S.-India relations, and also learning about the issues from people who may not have been part of the dialogue in the past. So that’s been an exciting part of the last year as well.
BHARATH KUMAR T.G. VENKATESH
Education and commitment to learning, innovation and hard work are common values between our two countries. So it is somewhat natural for this to be such a big and important area for our two countries. We have seen a dramatic uptick in Indian students going to study in the United States— over 132,000 last year, which was a 30 percent increase over the previous year—and we see no signs of that letting up. We have great universities in the United States and India has great universities as well. So, my hope is that we continue to attract great students from across India to the United States and that we get more American students coming to India. We just launched a really interesting online course through Passport to India, to generate more enthusiasm among American students for study opportunities in India.
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WWP RAFIQ MAQBOOL © AP-W
Left: Ambassador Richard Verma with a migrant worker during his visit to Mysore in April 2015. SELCO India and USAID India have partnered to provide migrant communities with solar panels to improve their livelihoods. Below left: Ambassador Verma with U.S. and Indian Special Forces at Aero India 2015 in Bengaluru. Below: Ambassador Verma (right) and U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew (second from right) interact with women from the fishing community in Mumbai in February 2015.
Above: Ambassador Richard Verma during a visit to the Golden Temple in Amritsar in May 2015. Left: Ambassador Verma enjoys a cup of Indian filter coffee at Mylai Karpagambal Mess, during his visit to Chennai in July 2015.
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Photographs by RAKESH MALHOTRA
I will also note that the programs are not limited to higher education—but that there are opportunities for community college work, skill building and training as well. The goal here is to try to make sure people have an opportunity to succeed in this century, which is particularly different in terms of technology, and make sure that we are giving people the skills to catch up. A lot of this comes through higher education, but those skills can also be developed through vocational training. Community colleges provide another kind of mentoring opportunity. So, we are looking at the whole gamut and not just one direction—not just Indian students going to the U.S.—but in both directions.
not from traditional media. Tactically, we have changed how we reach out. Also, our programming is far more expansive than, I think, people realize. Everyone gets the news about the big defense deal, civil nuclear cooperation and the big trade numbers. But, we have so much happening in the other areas. For example, I’m very excited about the startup initiative, building upon the Prime Minister’s trip to Silicon Valley to make sure we are supporting a start-up culture and innovation here in India, and through student exchanges. We are trying to tap into the best and brightest minds in both of our countries to solve tomorrow’s problems. It is also very exciting because India’s youth is coming into leadership positions or growing up at a time when India is a rising India is home to the world’s largest power in the world. So, again thinking youth population, with more than 50 back to the time when my parents gradupercent of its population under 25 ated from college or high school in India years of age, and over two-thirds under in the late 1940’s or early 1950’s, that the age of 35. In what ways is the was a very tumultuous time—India was a United States engaging with India’s new country, a new democracy, trying to youth? chart its place in the world. Today India In so many different ways—in the is a global power and its youth lives in a communication tools that we use, the country that not just watches the changes amount of information that we now in the world but is driving a lot of that transmit digitally using social media change. platforms, knowing that people are getting most of their news and What role do you think cultural information from their smartphones and diplomacy plays in strengthening 6 BUILDING BRIDGES
Above left: Ambassador Richard Verma inaugurates Domino’s Pizza’s 1,000th restaurant in India, at a mall in New Delhi, in February 2016. Above: Ambassador Verma participates in a bhangra dance by students of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Khalsa College during an open house for U.S. Embassy staff at his residence in April 2015.
U.S.-India ties? I think it is exceptionally important and we see it through the strong connections we have in literature, in the arts, Bollywood-Hollywood connections, in food. The cultural connections are a big part of what brings people together. We call it a form of Indian soft power. When I think of how popular International Yoga Day was, for example, and how popular yoga has become in the United States, or how prevalent Indian food is in the United States along with music, films and actors—that’s exciting. You might wonder what role the government has in the cultural area. I think what we can do is try to deepen those connections through programming, as well as simply recognizing people’s achievements and using culture as a real bridge between our two countries. How do you see India’s role in promoting peace and economic development in the region? It’s been critical. India has one of the most capable militaries in the world, their maritime power is very strong, and they
U.S. Embassy photo Courtesy facebook.com/India.usembassy
“ RAJANISH KAKADE © AP-WWP
Today India is a
global power and its youth lives in a country that not just watches the changes in the world but is driving a lot of that change.
U.S. Embassy photo
” Top: Ambassador Richard Verma interacts with students of Isabella Thoburn College during a visit to Lucknow in August 2015. Second from top: Ambassador Verma enjoys a meal with the hosts of the travel and food TV
show, “Highway On My Plate,” Rocky Singh (left) and Mayur Sharma (center) in October 2015. Third from top: Amitabh Bachchan (from left), Ambassador Verma and Ratan Tata interact at the launch of an
event in Mumbai, aimed at eradication of tuberculosis in India, in September 2015. Above: Ambassador Verma meets Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow in August 2015. BUILDING BRIDGES
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Ambassador Richard Verma on Twitter MANISH SWARUP © AP-W WWP
https://twitter.com/ USAmbIndia
Ambassador Verma’s video blogs
Above: Ambassador Richard Verma (center) and U.S. Embassy staff perform a celebratory flash mob to hail the U.S.-India cooperation in the Paris climate agreement, in New Delhi in December 2015. Above right: Ambassador Verma (left) at a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. to discuss the global fight against climate change, in San Jose, California, in September 2015. Right: Ambassador Verma visits a kitchen running on fuel from the biogas plant at the headquarters of Sulabh International in New Delhi, in August 2015.
have professional armed forces. It’s also like our military—overseen by civilians. We have a very strong security partnership with India, we have a counter-terrorism partnership, we have military-to-military partnerships. We now do a lot of joint research and development of the latest defense technologies and defense goods. But India also stands for something— India stands for the rule of law. It’s the world’s largest democracy, it protects minority rights, it celebrates diversity, and it wants to resolve disputes peacefully. These are values that we share. This incredibly large and diverse democracy is grounded upon the rule of 8 BUILDING BRIDGES
SUDHA GANDHI
http://newdelhi.usembassy.gov/ vermarich.html
law. Having India convey those kinds of values is really important to peace and stability because, ultimately, we want to make sure that the post-World War II rules-based order, which both India and the United States have not only relied on but have defended, continues to prevail amidst the threats that we both face. Both of our countries have been leaders in that regard.
of the year with the historic agreement in Paris. Coming out of the climate talks, we both committed to take meaningful actions to reduce carbon emissions as a way to control global warming and temperature increase. The climate agreement was extremely important. We both agreed to double our research and development dollars in our Mission Innovation program in clean energy. That’s going to bring billions of What are some of the key areas dollars in new financing, from both public and private sectors, into the clean where the United States and India are working together to mitigate climate energy mix to accelerate discoveries and change? to, hopefully, bring new technologies to This was a big area where we came help power India’s growth in a carbon together in 2015, as punctuated at the end neutral way. We have also agreed to
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Clean energy
is probably the single most exciting and clearest pathway for
JOE MCHUGH/California Highway Patrol
cooperation between our two countries in the decade ahead.
support India’s solar alliance, which is a novel effort aimed to bring increased solar energy to millions of people who need it. We have also lined up very strongly behind India’s renewable energy target of 175 gigawatts [by March 2022]—there’s no country that has had a more aggressive target than India. Clean energy is probably the single most exciting and clearest pathway for cooperation between our two countries in the decade ahead. What are some of the main policy issues impacting bilateral trade and investment? What steps are the two countries taking to increase the ease of doing business? When we go back and look at how much two-way trade and investment numbers have increased, it’s been dramatic over the last 10 years. But it could be much more significant given the size of our two economies. We have to continue to work together to break down barriers. Ease of doing business is an umbrella term for a lot of factors that go into that determination. So what are they? The regulatory burden which we have seen start to get better; tax fairness and tax certainty; legal certainty and contract
sanctity—can the government go in and change the terms of a contract which is one we have to continue to work on. I think the establishment of commercial courts will help with the backlog of cases and bring a certain expertise to make sure contractual commercial disputes are resolved quickly and fairly. Land and labor reforms, bankruptcy reforms, infrastructure, power—all of these things we have to continue to work on, some with the central government and some with state governments. I would say, at the state level, we have seen really good progress, with the states now competing with each other to attract outside investors. And we will continue to work with the central government on additional reforms that are needed. But again, to increase opportunities in both countries, not just in one country. What are some of the main opportunities and challenges for deepening U.S.-India defense trade ties? Defense is one of the anchor areas for our two countries. Just in terms of defense sales, even six-seven years ago, we had nothing. Now we have probably close to $14 billion in defense sales. Better than that, we have moved from a
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buyer-seller relationship to co-production, co-development and joint research. Our two industries and militaries are coming together to produce advanced defense products and technologies for India, for the United States and, where possible, for export to third countries. We have also increased the complexity and tempo of our military exercises. I look at what we are doing in advanced carrier cooperation and jet engine technologies. There’s really so much we can do, and I really think we will continue to broaden and deepen the security partnership in the years ahead. Would you like to share anything else with our readers? We had a very, very good year in the U.S.-India relationship. It reflects on the terrific people who work here at the U.S. Embassy and our Consulates, whether they are locally employed staff, U.S. government employees, military officers, or Marines. We really have a wonderful team and we also have wonderful partners who we get to work with each day right here in New Delhi and across India. As President Obama said, we are aiming to become India’s best partner and, I think, we are on that course. BUILDING BRIDGES
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The United States and India
Best Partners As Eleanor Roosevelt wrote, "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." This call to undaunted hope, which is so critically necessary today, is perfectly complemented by a verse by Tagore, whose works Eleanor Roosevelt so admired. "Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless when facing them." There are no better partners to confront the fears and seize the challenges of this century than the United States and India, working hand in hand for the good of humanity. Remarks by Ambassador Richard Verma, Foreign Correspondents' Club of South Asia, New Delhi, India, January 21, 2017
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The Movers and Shakers
Remember that the democratic experiment and the rights afforded to our fellow citizens are most often cultivated - and sometimes threatened - in the small spaces, as Eleanor Roosevelt said "so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world." "Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice‌" So, as we think big - about India's role on the global stage, and of our new found resurgence in our bilateral ties and our work together, let us also find those small spaces, and as lawyers, advance our shared values and stand up for the equal justice enshrined within our respective Constitutions. I will strive to do my part - and I know you will do yours too. "Advancing Shared Values," Remarks by Ambassador Richard Verma, National Law University September 13, 2016
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U.S.-India Defense Partnership Our defense cooperation is not based on a limited set of strategic priorities, nor is it directed toward a particular country. Rather, it is rooted in our shared values. In 1953 President Eisenhower and Prime Minister Nehru noted that India and the United States are "bound together in strong ties of friendship deriving from‌their adherence to the highest principles of free democracy" and the "need to improve the welfare of the individual." Fundamental to our readiness to respond to future crises are our regular engagements including bilateral and joint exercises, International Military Education & Training (IMET), subject matter expert exchanges, and national agreements. Our success in these endeavors will have profound, positive effects for the entire world and will help ensure our mutual prosperity. I'm pleased that joint U.S. and Indian defense exercises and training continue to set a very high bar. We are jointly preparing the military leaders of tomorrow and ensuring their respective units are the best equipped and best trained. We have moved to a phase in our defense relationship where we discuss and explore jointness of operations and interoperability. We are building a premier defense partnership for the future. Remarks by Ambassador Richard Verma, Defence Services Staff College, Wellington August 24, 2015
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The India Connect I believe there is something deeper and stronger at the heart of our relationship something that made Prime Minister Modi call us "natural allies" in a recent interview with Time Magazine. And, that is our shared values. These shared values were forged over the past two centuries by some of our great statesmen, activists and jurists. We know, for example, that American philosopher Henry David Thoreau, had read and was influenced by the Bhagavad Gita - a book he read at Walden Pond. We also know that one of Thoreau's most famous works - Civil Disobedience, was an inspiration for Gandhi's passive resistance campaign. In 1959, Dr. Martin Luther King would spend one-month in India at the invitation of Prime Minister Nehru, learning from the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, and declaring when he returned to the United States that he had a greater determination to achieve freedom and racial equality through non-violent means. Ambassador Verma’s remarks (confirm?), National Law University, New Delhi, September 13, 2016
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Mission India So as you can see, I am bullish about our future and confident our strong relationship will continue into the next administration. As I look back on the past two years - and I use two years not only because that measures my time here in India, but it was also just over two years ago that Prime Minister Modi went to Washington for his first meeting with President Obama - it's been one of the best two-year periods in our relationship. I'm so grateful to the Embassy team and our colleagues across the Indian Government who have worked so hard over many, many years to get to this point. Remarks by Ambassador Richard Verma, FICCI and Brookings Post Election Discussion, November 11, 2016
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For a new
American ambassador, India is a kind of
homecoming By Annie Gowen May 28, 2015 JALANDHAR, India — A quiet stroll around the old neighborhood had been planned. But word spread quickly that U.S. Ambassador Richard Verma was returning to his family’s home in northern India after years in the United States. By the time Verma, 46, arrived in the Basti Sheikh neighborhood, where he spent time as a child, the narrow lane leading to his grandmother’s house had been draped in colorful bunting. A costumed musician was loudly beating a drum. And in 105degree heat, hundreds of well-wishers leaned out from
balconies, snapped photos and pushed forward to greet him, garlanding him with marigolds, pelting him with flower petals and offering sweets. The low-key diplomat — a Bethesda lawyer — seemed a bit surprised by the ferocious outpouring of affection. “This is amazing,” he kept saying, shaking rose petals out of his hair. Verma’s family left India before he was born. Like many other children of immigrant families from that era, he says he spent the early part of his life trying to assimilate into U.S. culture —
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hockey, Little League — and never dreamed of living in his parents’ native country. But after more than two decades working in Washington — including as a foreign policy adviser to Sen. Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and as an assistant secretary of state during the Hillary Rodham Clinton
the United States, which had stagnated under India’s last government, then soured in late 2013 when a junior Indian diplomat was arrested in New York on charges that she underpaid her domestic help. The relationship between India and the United States “is in much
era — the White House came calling last year. India beckoned, and with it, his family’s past. A changing relationship Verma, his wife, Pinky, also a lawyer, their three children and Arlo the dog arrived in New Delhi in January, days before President Obama’s visit. The president was coming to India to meet for the second time with the country’s new prime minister, Narendra Modi. The two leaders seemed determined to rejuvenate relations between India and
better shape than it has been for some time. There is much more expectation about how we can take the relationship forward. In that sense, he has his job cut out for him,” said Shyam Saran, a former foreign secretary and Indian diplomat. At the time of Verma’s appointment, there had been some grumbling among India’s diplomats, who had hoped for a highpowered name. Meanwhile, in Washington, there was a debate about whether tapping the first
Indian American for the post was something positive or negative. “I’ll leave it for other people to judge if it’s a plus or a minus,” Verma said. “You do have to go back to ensuring you’re making the pick based on the qualifications of the person. I’ve had people underestimate me my whole life.” Many now see his heritage as a plus, especially as Modi has reached out to the powerful Indian diaspora in the United States and elsewhere for invest-
ment and other support. Verma arrived in the United States from Canada in 1971 at age 2 with his family — mother Savitri, a special-education teacher who died in 2011; his father, Kamal, a retired professor, now 84; and four siblings. They were the only Indian American family in gritty Johnstown, Pa., a city of steel mills. “It was a very basic, hardworking community,” recalled Verma’s brother Rajiv, an insurance exec59
utive in New Jersey. Many of their friends, he said, already knew their futures lay in the steel industry. “Their only dilemma was were they going to work the night shift or the day shift.” The adjustment was tough. Their mother cried every day for a week. The family came to love the city. Verma’s best friends are still there, and his father only recently retired from teaching literature at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. But things were not easy at the beginning. Children could be mean, although Verma doesn’t like to talk about those experiences, except to say that’s one reason he became a lawyer. “I know what it’s like to be different,” he said. One of his most vivid memories is of watching his mother standing in her sari in the blowing and drifting snow, waiting to take a bus to her teaching job.
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“Talk about unusual experience that toughens you up,” he said. “I’m sure she was scared, unnerved in some way, but she never showed it. She was always such a rock.” Verma attended Lehigh University and studied law at American University. He earned a master’s degree in law from Georgetown University while serving in the Air Force. A chance meeting with then-Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), led him to begin interning on Capitol Hill while still in college. Verma served as a foreign policy adviser to Reid from 2002 to 2007 and later as assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs. Over the years, he began wanting to learn more about his family’s history in India. “It’s funny. An interesting thing about assimilation in America is I think you probably spend half your time growing up trying to show
everybody you’re just like they are, and you spend the other half trying to figure out where you came from and what you’re all about,” he said. “Growing up, the thought of coming back wasn’t high on the list of things I wanted to do. But as you get older, learning and discovering about this place was really important to me.”
Exploring the past And so, last week, that desire led him back to a two-story house in Jalandhar where most of his family had lived before migrating to the West in the 1960s. His mother and grandmother, also a teacher, settled here in 1947 after they fled the violence that erupted with India’s independence and the
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cleaving of the country that created Pakistan and left hundreds of thousands of Hindus and Muslims dead. He spent the summer here as a boy of 6, brought by his mother to meet his grandmother. There was the iron swing in the hallway, the back room where he slept — still the same, he said — and the roof terrace where the whole neighborhood gathered on hot evenings to watch Bollywood movies on the
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one flickering black-and-white TV. He was an American boy by then, neighbors and former playmates, some now in their 50s, told him. Every day his mother searched for familiar food he would eat. He couldn’t speak the local Punjabi language very well, so he and his friends communicated by hand signals when they played cricket. His strict grandmother told the neighborhood boys to be sure to take care of him.
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