The Indian community in the tristate area welcomed Ambassador Riva Ganguly Das, the new consul General in New York at a grand reception held at the Royal Albertâ€™s Palce in Fords, New Jersey, March 13.

More than 600 people turned up for the event organized by the joint efforts of two dozen organizations at a short notice.

Almost the entire business and media community in the tri-state attended the event. H R Shah, chairman and CEO of TV Asia, Dr Sudhir Parekh, publisher of News India Times and Desi Talk, businessman Piyush Patel, community leader Pradip Kothari, Mrs Vandana Sharma, regional sales manager of the Americas for Air India, Anand Patel, president of Federation of Indian Associations, Dr Seema Jain, president of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, Dr Navin Mehta, president and board member of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, New Jersey State Utilities Commissioner Upendra Chivukula, Franklin Councilman Rajeev Prasad, Assemblyman Raj Mukherji, and Leela Maret of the Fokana were among those spoke welcoming the consul general.

Ambassador Das thanked the community for the warm welcome accorded to her and for the large turn out for the event. She expressed her confidence that the community would continue to work to strengthen the relations between US and India.

She assured that she would continue the good work and services that former Consul General Dhyneshwar Mulay had introduced.

She said she would set up a suggestion box at the consulate to receive the opinions and suggestions of the people. She promised to improve the various services at the consulate.

She was presented with a painting of herself rendered by a local artist.

There were also a couple of entertainment programs presented in her honor.

Mrs. Riva Ganguly Das joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1986. She is a Post Graduate in political science from Delhi University. Prior to joining the foreign service, she was a lecturer at Delhi University. Her first posting was in Spain.

Later she worked at Headquarters dealing with External Publicity, Nepal and Passport/Visa work.

From there she moved to Dhaka as Head of the Cultural Wing of the Indian High Commission. After her return from Dhaka, she took over as Director at the United Nations Economic and Social Affairs Division and participated in environmental negotiations, particularly climate change.

She was the Deputy Chief of Mission in the Embassy of India, The Hague. She was also the Alternate Permanent Representative of India to the Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons at The Hague. She served as Consul General of India in Shanghai from 2008 to 2012. After her return from China, she headed the Public Diplomacy Division in the Ministry of External Affairs and she was in charge of the Latin America & Caribbean Division in the Ministry of External Affairs.

Before joining as Consul General of India in New York, she was Ambassador of India to Romania, Albania & Moldova with residence in Bucharest.

She is married and has two children.

600 attend reception to welcome New Yorkâ€™s new Consul General Riva Ganguly Das