Message of Greeting
Dear Visitors to our Website,
As Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Mumbai, I extend a very warm welcome to you. My name is Leopold-Theodor Heldman. I have arrived in India in August 2010 and since Mid-September I am living here together with my wife. India as a travel destination is for us an old acquaintance, but as a diplomatic posting it is a brand new experience. This posting was our own choice and we still find India a particularly fascinating, multifaceted country, full of challenges and contradictions like few other countries in the world. Of all this, elements can be found concentrated in Mumbai, the largest city in the country, as in a magnifying glass. We are therefore looking forward to the years ahead with a great deal of enthusiasm.
The regional competence of the Consulate General stretches far beyond Mumbai and encompasses the Indian Federal States of Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra as well as the Union Territories of Daman and Diu. In an overall area of 950,000 sq.km live approximately 230 million inhabitants. These figures already reflect the importance of the role of the German Consulate General in nurturing and further promoting bilateral relations in this part of India.
Our work covers a broad spectrum of activities ranging from assisting Germans living abroad, issuing visas to Indians visiting Germany, promoting cultural activities or following up political developments in India as well as organising visits of official German delegations, the numbers of which are steadily on the rise, a fact which strongly reflects increasing German interest in India.
A special focus of my work as Consul General in Mumbai is the promotion of economic relations between Germany and India. Mumbai, being home to the Central Bank and to the Stock Exchange as well as to numerous important companies and banks, is India's commercial capital, the „Gateway of India“. Many German companies too have chosen Mumbai or nearby Pune as the main location for their activities in India. These India related activities of German business have unfolded with extraordinary momentum since the beginning of 2010; I find this particularly gratifying. And this pertains simultaneously to trade and investment, cooperation and technology transfer. This development calls for multiple, complementary, advisory and supportiv assistence by the Consulate General. Our team is ready and eager to take up this growing and demanding challenge.
Apart from bilateral economic relations, an area of particular importance in Indo-German relations is the exchange in the area of research and development. India is well known in Germany as an IT destination. That she can also boast of highly competent Universities and Research Institutes in the area of Technology and Natural Sciences, is less well-known in Germany and should open avenues for new forms of cooperation. For me an objective worth pursuing is that in the future many more Indian students acquire Doctorate, Master's or Bachelor's degrees in Germany, and that more German students come to India. On the basis of this personnel exchange we should, in the intermediate term, aspire towards building a broad network of institutions in the fields of Research and Education.
I hope that you will find some of the information you are looking for on this website. If you have any further questions or queries, you are welcome to contact me or my colleagues. We look forward to this interaction with you.
