SPAN The Ties That Bind
U.S. Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti on what excites him the most about the U.S.-India relationship.
Building Bridges
BY CHARVI ARORA
Ambassador Eric Garcetti serves as the 26th U.S. Ambassador to India. He is a committed public servant, educator and diplomat. After serving on the Los Angeles City Council for 12 years, Ambassador Garcetti won election in 2013 as the youngest mayor in the city’s history. He then won reelection in 2017. As Mayor, he oversaw a period of economic growth and opportunity, won a bid for Los Angeles to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2028, and pursued an aggressive health and climate agenda.
Ambassador Garcetti served as a naval officer in the reserve component for 12 years.
Ambassador Garcetti earned a B.A. as a John Jay Scholar from Columbia University, where he studied Hindi and Indian culture. He holds a Master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and he was a Rhodes Scholar at The Queen’s College, Oxford. He is married to Amy Elaine Wakeland, a fellow member of his Rhodes Scholar class. They have one daughter and have been foster parents for more than a decade. A fourth-generation native of Los Angeles, Ambassador Garcetti is a proud card-carrying member of the Screen Actors Guild and is an avid pianist and photographer. Excerpts from an interview with SPAN.
Courtesy
U.S. Consulate General Mumbai
Please tell us about the time you spent in India as a young man.
I first came to India as a 14-year-old in 1985 with my sister, my mother and father. And it was a revelation—a place that immediately captured my heart and reminded me that India and the United States have a long history. Look at the way India has influenced the United States and vice versa, the way Gandhi inspired Martin Luther King, the way that we have fought for our freedoms and for our countries to be great.
I returned in 1990 and many times after, each time the years telling me things the days couldn’t see. I’ve been able to see the incredible trajectory and the ways in which the things I love about India—its amazing people, its warmth, its history and culture—have
not changed but the ways in which economic prosperity and India’s place in the world have changed and continue to grow from strength to strength. I still feel like that 14-year-old boy here in India with a sense of wonder but also now, as Ambassador, having a chance to write a chapter together with Indians and Americans for the future.
As a pianist, which musicians inspire you?
I come from a family of musicians. My grandparents met when they were both in music school during the Great Depression. My mother played jazz and classical piano and taught me to play too. As a kid, I played jazz. I was a composer in college, of musicals and other things. I love all types of music.
I enjoy many strains of Indian music, from great composers like A.R. Rahman who have written soundtracks in Hollywood, sitarists like Ravi Shankar and great pianists like Vijay Iyer. Jazz is my favorite of all genres. Keith Jarrett is my number one influence, but I love
Left / Ambassador Eric Garcetti tries his hand at cricket with Indian cricketer Mithali Raj in Mumbai. / Below / Ambassador Garcetti (right) visited India as a young man in the 1990’s. / Bottom / Ambassador Garcetti in a jam session at KM Music Conservatory in Chennai. / Below Right / Ambassador Garcetti visits the Charminar in Hyderabad.
sitting down at a piano without an idea of a song in my head and just improvising. Having a chance to let the universe speak through your hands and your soul.
How do you think cultural diplomacy can strengthen U.S.-India ties?
Cultural diplomacy is something Americans and Indians do every day without even knowing it. We watch a YouTube video, or “Naatu Naatu” wins an Academy Award, or see Diljit Dosanjh come to the Coachella festival with music from India—we are engaging in cultural diplomacy. But I think we can go further. I believe that when you touch people’s hearts through stories, music or sports, it has the power for us to recognize that we are all part of the same human family. And specifically, I really want to continue to bring and build these bridges from Hollywood to Bollywood and to the wider Indian film industry here, and bring more Indian cinema to the United States.
Sports is another aspect of culture, for us to bring our sports like basketball and even American football here while we learn about cricket and see the ways
that they can enrich our lives. Cultural diplomacy unites us. It will be a core part of the work that I do here as Ambassador.
What are your favorite Indian foods? What do you look forward to trying during your travels in India?
I love Indian food. I have eaten it my entire life and cooked it at home in the United States. It is difficult to pick a favorite but a good idli is a great way to start the day. I also like chole masala or Kolkata biryani—I love all regional food.
If I had to pick one thing, it might be a good thali that you just can have over and over. I love eating with my hands. I think for a lot of Americans, that’s a new thing. But I’m half Mexican, so we eat with tortillas. That’s the way you experience food with your fingers.
I love spicy food, anything with chilies. In restaurants, they don’t believe me; they think Americans can’t take it, but I can.
If you could tell an American student one thing about India and an Indian student one thing about America,
Below left / Diljit Dosanjh performs at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. / Below right / The U.S. Mission in India held its seventh annual Student Visa Day, which celebrates the long-standing higher education ties between the United States and India, in June 2023.
what would you say?
I would say that the United States and India, together, have the ability to change the future of the world. These are two great countries. One with a deep civilizational past, one which is the oldest democracy. One that’s now not just the largest democracy, but the most populous country in the world. Both places are diverse, complicated, but in some ways flipsides of the same coin.
We are many countries in one, and we have much to learn from each other, but at the core we have parallel values. The idea that everybody belongs, that everybody should count, no matter where they come from, what language they speak, whom they love, how they worship. These things, to me, are keystones that have defined India and America over the years. I would also say to American students, come visit. We need more American students in India. We have great study abroad and educational exchange programs like the Critical Language Scholarship and the Fulbright-Nehru Scholarship programs that support American students to come study in India.
One of my goals is to bring more Americans to India. Just as I came here when I was a student, other Americans need to come here, to know India, to speak its languages, to learn about its history and its culture. I tell American students, regardless of your interests, be they business, politics, culture, or music, India will enrich your life and help you do better.
How can young people in the United States and India contribute to this exciting time for the partnership?
The number of Indians who are 16 years old or younger equal the entire population of the United States of America. It is very exciting to be in a country where youth can change not only the direction of this country, but can influence our country and the entire world.
I would say, be bold, be friendly, lead with your heart. Bring your culture and your ideas. Be creators. I love Indian hip-hop, Indian jazz, and American musicians building on Indian musical traditions and fusing those things together.
I think for a young person today, we don’t see borders. We don’t see that we only fit into one thing, one place, one style. I can’t wait to see what the U.S.-India mashup becomes, guided by young people who have ideas of where fashion should go, what the next big hit will be, about the next story to tell, or how technology can change our lives, improve our health, and increase our prosperity.
It is very exciting to be in a country where youth can change not only the direction of this country, but can influence our country and the entire world.
Finally, I’d say to young people, bring your values. We all want a world with gender equity, where everybody belongs, a world in which there is no poverty, where we can breathe the air, where we have confronted the climate crisis. Bring your passion and your solutions to the challenges we face. India can’t face those alone and America can’t face those alone. But together we are better.
To Indian students, I would say we love Indian students coming to the United States. We processed a record number of student visas from India to the United States. We want Indian students to come to the United States and see some of the great work that both countries are doing on technology and STEM, but also in other areas. I would tell Indian students that we want you to come and study. We want you to come and contribute. We want you to come and take some of America back home with you.
That is what will really strengthen this relationship. Not an ambassador with a prime minister, not a president with a foreign minister. It will be everyday people who know and love both countries.
What’s your message to SPAN readers?
I always say this—be fearless. Don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t do something. You can. Second, be humble. Don’t let fearlessness make you arrogant. Third, I would say, learn to listen. It’s one of the most important qualities you can have. We’re all taught to do what I’m doing right now, learn how to speak better, give speeches, put out our social media. But if you listen to the world, you will speak with so much power. The last thing is, always lead with love. If you lead with love, you’ll find the good in everybody. You will put out in the world a better tomorrow. And together we will build a better world.
Glimpses of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the United States.
Charting a Partnership for the Future
‘No corner of human enterprise is untouched by the partnership between our two great countries, which spans the seas to the stars.’
22, 2023
Above / President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi walk to the Oval Office after the State Arrival Ceremony at the White House on June 22, 2023, in Washington, D.C.
—Joint Statement from the United States and India, June
Pete Marovich © The New York Times via AP
Above / Prime Minister Modi addresses a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress, at the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Above / Vice President Kamala Harris, Prime Minister Modi and Secretary of State Antony Blinken at a State Department luncheon.
Above / Prime Minister Modi and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden participate in a youth skill development event at the National Science Foundation.
Left / Tim Cook, CEO of Apple (from left); Prime Minister Modi; President Biden; and Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, at a meeting of American and Indian business leaders at the White House.
J. Scott
A California company’s aromatic single-origin spices promote sustainability as well as understanding about Indian cooking and culture.
Sharing the Taste of India
BY MICHAEL GALLANT
Pragati turmeric, Bindu black mustard and Nandini coriander—for Sana Javeri Kadri, these and other distinctive South Asian spices are more than just delicious powders for flavoring foods. Instead, Kadri sees the world of spices as an opportunity for exciting international business.
Kadri is the founder and CEO of Diaspora Co., a California-headquartered company that works directly with farmers to share delicious spices with consumers across the United States and beyond.
Organic spices and international acclaim
Diaspora Co. specializes in selling spices that are grown without harmful chemicals, and the company prides itself on carefully testing each harvest for contamination before the spices go to market.
Its spices are also “single-origin,” which means that all of the coriander, chili or mustard contained in a Diaspora Co. package came from the same farm. Sourcing spices this way helps Kadri and her team make sure the quality of each spice is high, and that farmers are paid fairly for their work. During her annual trips to India, Kadri personally visits every farm the company works with to build relationships with farmers. She also works closely with them on the business of their farms and helps them find ways to grow their spices without pesticides.
“Sana provides a much larger profit margin,” Zeinorin Angkang, who grows Sivathei chili in Manipur for Diaspora Co., said in a 2021 Vogue magazine article. “And
she pays us all at once. She also embraces indigenous farming practices like planting yam, soy and rice among the chilies.”
Diaspora Co. sources its spices from across India. Kashmiri chili and saffron come from the north while India’s eastern areas offer Sivathei chili, Naga Hills hibiscus and more. Bindu black mustard comes from the country’s central region, Baraka cardamom from the south, and Nandini coriander from the west.
Its efforts have gained international attention and widespread praise. Food & Wine wrote about Diaspora Co., “Compared to the turmeric you get in the grocery store, it’s night and day. You need to know about this organically-farmed, single-origin turmeric.” In Vogue magazine, Tamar Adler wrote, “Diaspora Co.’s Pragati turmeric is so fragrant it’s almost intoxicating. The Aranya pepper smells like ripe fruit and tastes like smoke, chocolate and mandarins.” Diana Tsui, a reviewer for the food website The Infatuation, wrote, “The difference between these spices and the random ones I used to buy on the shelves at the supermarket is pretty drastic. The flavors are definitely sharper and more like the plants they came from.”
Kadri tells SPAN that critical recognition is always thrilling to see, and that the company wouldn’t be where it is without such positive publicity—but that widespread recognition of the company’s accomplishments has a deeper significance as well. “Now, we see ourselves as translators of culture, as educators and
Left / Diaspora Co., founded by Sana Javeri Kadri (far left), works directly with farmers to share delicious spices, like Pahadi Pink Garlic, with consumers across the United States and beyond.
spokespersons for South Asia’s best regenerative farmers, which is all in the service of our mission,” she says. “More visibility means more spices means better, more impactful service to our farmers, and that’s our North Star.”
Building Diaspora Co.
Kadri was born and raised in Mumbai. In 2012, she moved to the United States to enroll at California’s Pomona College, where she studied food and visual art. Four years later, while working in food marketing for a San Francisco-based grocery store, Kadri took note of the growing popularity of turmeric in American food culture—particularly as an ingredient in popular coffee drinks. She also noticed how the turmeric she tasted in the United States was far less aromatic and intense than what she remembered from Mumbai. Curious to learn more, Kadri decided to return to India. She spent months visiting Indian farms, and spoke with the Indian Institute of Spices Research in Kerala, a meeting she describes as life-changing. She founded Diaspora Co. in 2017 with only one product—Pragati turmeric—which she sourced from a single farm partner named Prabhu Kasaraneni. “The big, audacious dream was to grow a radically new, decidedly delicious and truly equitable spice trade,” Kadri writes.
Diaspora Co.’s growth and international success speak for themselves. Today, the company has expanded into a team of over a dozen employees from India, the United States, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia. They sell dozens of spices from over 150 farms. The company’s emphasis on sustainable and organic agriculture, and direct connections with farmers, cuts down on chemical pollution and greenhouse emissions normally associated with the spice industry. And Diaspora Co.’s growing popularity in the United States— which is the world’s biggest consumer and importer of spices—helps spread knowledge and understanding about Indian cooking and culture.
For Kadri, Diaspora Co.’s wide-ranging success all began with knowledge of a fractured past, and dreams of a better future. “Being in this community is about connecting deeply with the culture and heritage of the regions that we source from, and about learning as we go,” she writes on the company’s website. “Complicating and deepening what ‘Made in South Asia’ means, and how we tell our own stories of freedom, struggle and diaspora through food.”
Michael Gallant is a New York City-based writer, musician and entrepreneur.
Courtesy Diaspora Co.
Three Indian Quad fellows use their STEM education to find innovative solutions for social good.
A (S)Quad of Good Fellows
BY PAROMITA PAIN
Can clean energy be made more affordable and universally accessible? How can novice users of artificial intelligence (AI) understand it better? Can medical diagnosis be made more efficient? These are some of the questions three Indian Quad fellows— Teja Venkatesa Perumal, Dhruv Agarwal and Sharicka Zutshi are exploring. They are part of the first cohort of 100 fellows announced in December 2022.
The fellowship
Designed to build ties among the next generation of scientists and technologists, the Quad Fellowship is an initiative of the governments of the four Quad countries—Australia, India, Japan and the United
States. The fellows receive $50,000 in funding, which can be used for tuition, research, books or other related academic expenses.
While pursuing their higher studies in the United States, Perumal, Agarwal and Zutshi will participate in the Quad cohort’s networking activities and virtual programming. “The Quad Fellowship not only allows me to fund a part of my graduate school journey,” says Zutshi, “but also allows me to interact with scientists and change-makers from across the Quad countries, which will help me develop as a scientist, innovator, future educator and aspiring entrepreneur.”
Agarwal, too, says he will use the benefits of the fellowship to support his research. “Apart from funding
Left / The Quad Fellowship is an initiative of the governments of the four Quad countries— Australia, India, Japan and the United States. The first cohort of 100 fellows was announced in December 2022.
Courtesy Teja Venkatesa Perumal
for my fieldwork, the programmatic and networking benefits will help me diversify my research into underserved communities in different countries, something I would not be able to do otherwise,” he says. “As a result of these benefits, I will end up delivering quality STEM research focused on social good.”
Demystifying AI
A first-year Ph.D. student at Cornell University, Agarwal uses his background in computer science and human-computer interaction to design, build and evaluate technologies for underserved communities.
“Currently, my focus is on designing fair and responsible AI for marginalized individuals, especially in the context of health care,” he says. “My research will center on creating AI products that can be easily understood by users with limited resources, allowing them to make informed decisions about when to trust or distrust AI.”
Agarwal’s latest project at Cornell University seeks to understand how community health care workers in India understand the output of an AI-powered health diagnostic application. The team found that these users place immense trust in the AI output, treating it as similar to output from diagnostic devices like thermometers or X-ray machines. “As technical users, we understand that AI is nebulous and can make mistakes, but users with low levels of AI literacy are unable to fathom uncertainty in a machine’s output,” he says. “We are using insights from this study to build AI applica-
tions that are more interpretable to novice AI users.”
Agarwal, who is from New Delhi, arrived in the United States in 2022. During his Ph.D. studies over five years, he hopes to build an understanding of the needs and problems faced by underserved communities around the world that may be tackled by technology.
“After my Ph.D.,” he says “I want to continue designing and building technologies that bring social and policy impact, which is why the Quad Fellowship is a great fit for my long-term goals.”
Exploring micro solutions
A fourth-year undergraduate student, Zutshi is studying bioengineering and design innovation at the University of California (UC), Berkeley.
She is also working as a research assistant at the Sohn Research Lab in the UC Berkeley Department of Mechanical Engineering. Among other things, she is working on project ideas in early cancer detection and late-stage cancer adjuvant therapy—additional cancer treatment given after the primary treatment to lower the risk of the cancer coming back.
“Throughout my educational journey, my primary academic interests have been science, technology, economics and public policy,” says Zutshi, who was born in Bengaluru and completed school in Mumbai. Starting at an early age, she became interested in bioinspired design and its different applications.
“Growing up in a country with a 1:1000 doc-
Above / Dhruv Agarwal, a Ph.D. student at Cornell University, uses his background in computer science to design, build and evaluate technologies for underserved communities.
Above / Sharicka Zutshi, a fourth-year undergraduate student of bioengineering and design innovation at UC Berkeley, hopes to explore research, academia and entrepreneurship throughout her career.
Courtesy Sharicka Zutshi
Courtesy Dhruv Agarwal
tor-to-patient ratio, I was determined to make a difference in India’s health care infrastructure. Consequently, I was most intrigued by the applications of bioinspired design in medical science,” she says.
One problem she hopes to address is the lack of access to affordable health care in low-resource settings. “Specifically, I hope to work toward creating innovative solutions to improve the efficiency of medical devices used for health care delivery to reduce the burden on doctors and medical care systems,” says Zutshi.
She hopes to do so by exploring the use of microfluidic devices as diagnostic and therapeutic tools. Also called lab-on-a-chip, microfluidic devices use very small amounts of fluid on a microchip to do certain laboratory tests.
Zutshi believes that health care delivery can be improved through strategic innovation, specifically in diagnostic protocols for conditions like cancer. “By reducing the time required for diagnosis and subsequently improving treatment access,” she says, “we can save the lives which would be otherwise lost.”
Zutshi says her experience of studying in the United States has been incredibly rewarding. “I believe that being academically challenged in an environment that values discussion and debate has helped me grow as a student and an aspiring researcher,” she says.
“I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow in such a technology-forward, innovation-oriented country and with an amazing group of talented individuals from diverse backgrounds.”
Clean energy for all
Perumal, a Ph.D. student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, works on the sustainable production of valuable chemicals and fuels. This, in turn, makes clean energy more affordable and will have a direct impact on its accessibility. “I develop new catalytic processes and materials to make this possible,” says Perumal. “Specifically, I look at using renewable electricity to enable the conversion of carbon dioxide and the production of organic chemicals of pharmaceutical value.”
Growing up in Chennai, she realized that a lack of universal access to clean energy has compounded the challenges of climate change and poverty. “Scientific research can serve as a vital remedy,” she says. “Therefore, I was keen to carry out research to make clean energy affordable and universally accessible.”
Perumal, who wants to pursue a career in academia and be involved in public service, says she appreciates the numerous opportunities, as part of her Ph.D., to interact with policymakers and industry partners and to work on interdisciplinary collaborations.
“I am excited to interact with a wide range of people through the Quad Fellowship,” she says, “especially those working on crucial governmental policies and also key industry players.”
The Quad Fellowship is designed to build ties among the next generation of scientists and technologists.
Paromita Pain is an assistant professor of Global Media Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno
Above / Teja Venkatesa Perumal, a Ph.D. student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, works on the sustainable production of valuable chemicals and fuels.
Courtesy
Teja Venkatesa
Perumal
A U.S. State Department-funded program brings together the brightest minds from five South Asian countries to fight the climate crisis.
Driving Climate Action
BY KRITTIKA SHARMA
India and its neighboring countries account for a considerable chunk of the world’s population and biodiversity, but also bear the brunt of climate change. The U.S. State Department-funded Climate Action Champions Network (CACN) brings together young leaders from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka to lead initiatives and advocate for climate action in their home countries and the Indo-Pacific region.
Read about three Indian members of the first CACN cohort.
A voice for awareness
As a social development specialist who works with women, tribal farmers and first-generation learners, Sahaana Sankar believes social and economic empowerment is key to starting a conversation on sustainability. “The more empowered a community, the more voice they have to bring about change and talk about sustainability,” she explains. “We have seen women with a voice influence government decisions at the local body level. For instance, at a village meeting where women advocate for water lines or plantation of trees. Economic empowerment leads to more financial independence, access to information and freedom with the ability to make environment-friendly consumption choices.”
Sankar is the chief operating officer at Hand in Hand India, and focuses on communications and fund-
raising, primarily through social media. “I believe that social media has a powerful voice in advocating for change,” she says. Hand in Hand is a global nonprofit organization that works toward fighting poverty and creating jobs.
An engineer by education, Sankar is part of the first CACN cohort, and attended its first national conference in Kathmandu, Nepal. The conference “provided the cohort with the big picture on climate change and helped us understand the long-term and short-term goals that we must set to overcome the challenges,” she says.
Going forward, Sankar says she wants to use this opportunity to amplify her “voice on social media to create awareness on the impacts of climate change at the grassroots and share different South Asia-based learnings on combating them.”
“I would also like to implement some simple techbased solutions in agriculture and water conservation that will help farmers in the long run to increase farmland productivity,” she adds.
Collaborating for change
Soon after completing her bachelor’s degree at IIT Delhi, Kanika Prajapat founded Kriya Labs. The startup creates sustainable tableware from agricultural waste. Her interactions with the farming communities of Punjab, Haryana, and her home state, Rajasthan,
Courtesy Sahaana Sankar
Courtesy Kanika Prajapat
Courtesy Jayprakash Nayak
helped her understand how climate change affected marginalized communities severely. “They shared their experiences about how unexpected rains, locust attacks, cold waves and heat waves have made it difficult for them to obtain consistent crop yields and pay off their debt,” she explains.
During the COVID-19 lockdown, Prajapat started exploring communities that work on climate change and came across a London-based charity, ClimateScience. “I started volunteering with their global Olympiad program in January 2021,” she says. “Within months, I was offered to join the core leadership team at ClimateScience, as director of the ClimateScience Olympiad.”
Being a CACN fellow is an extension of that role. “By working with peers from different countries, I am able to develop a more holistic understanding of the challenges we face in addressing climate change, and identify more sustainable solutions relevant to the diverse contexts in which we work,” says Prajapat.
The interactions with CACN cohort members made her realize that climate change impacts vulnerable communities in different ways. “In India, heat waves, floods and droughts are becoming more frequent and intense, exacerbating existing water and food insecurity. In Nepal, glacial retreat is leading to a higher risk of water scarcity, while in Sri Lanka, increased rainfall is causing landslides and flooding,” she explains.
After completing her fellowship, Prajapat wants to get involved with other fellows on agriculture and climate finance projects. “I hope to get involved with them and use our collective expertise and networks to engage in advocacy and policy work,” she says, “pushing for systemic change at the local, national or international level.”
Planning for mitigations
Jayprakash Nayak was 19 years old when Cyclone Fani hit the coast of his home state, Odisha, in 2019. The havoc it left in its wake made Nayak “realize how
our cities are less adapted to climate change’s impacts and the devastating impact it can create if we’re entirely unprepared. This, and the erosion of the Odisha coast, has informed the way Nayak looks at climate change.
In June 2021, Nayak was selected by the U.S. Consulate General Hyderabad for the Young Climate Leaders Action Project (Y-CLAP), along with 15 other volunteers. As a Y-CLAP volunteer, he was involved in using the Barrier Identification Tool to identify non-climate-friendly behaviors. “It assisted me in finding the core reasons behind the excessive use of plastic and the lack of proper waste segregation in our society,” he says.
Nayak now works on raising “the issue of climate change, its adaptations and mitigations at basic levels and among policymakers, where my suggestions are being valued.” He is also researching the climate budget and its importance in achieving India’s NDCs (nationally determined contributions) goals as part of the Paris Agreement to help develop a comprehensive climate action plan.
Being a part of the CACN program has given Nayak the space to “educate people about different aspects of climate change and its impact on Odisha,” as well as understand how climate change impacts geographies and upcoming climate risks in South Asia.
The program has offered Nayak valuable exposure. From learning about start-ups and initiatives that work in the space of climate change, he is also learning about the significance of mangroves and coastal ecosystems, and building climate-resilient infrastructure to protect coastal belts.
After completing his fellowship at CACN, Nayak hopes to be engaged in policy advocacy to encourage state and national governments to integrate climate action into long-term budget planning. “I will also be researching the economic impacts of climate change, like the linkages between climate change’s effects on poverty, inequality and inflation,” he adds.
From far left / CACN fellows Sahaana Sankar, Kanika Prajapat and Jayprakash Nayak.
Front cover / Ambassador Eric Garcetti with guests at the American Independence Day celebration in Chennai. Photograph courtesy U.S. Consulate General Chennai.