Hillary Clinton in India: Day Two in Pictures

Secretary Clinton spent another whirlwind day in India, today. She began the day in New Delhi where she held a meet-and-greet with staff and families of the embassy there. From there, she flew to Chennai, considered to be an economic boom town in India. There, she delivered a major address (posted here earlier) on the future of U.S.-Indian relations, visited the Working Women's Forum where she also spoke, and attended a folk dance performance where her pretty forehead was decorated with a bindi. What a busy day! Enjoy the pictures!

Secretary Clinton's Remarks to Staff and Families at Consulate Chennai

Remarks to Staff and Families at Consulate Chennai

Remarks

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

Taj Coromandel

Chennai, India

July 20, 2011

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PARTICIPANT: When we first learned of the possibility of your visiting Chennai, I promised Ambassador Burleigh and Assistant Secretary Blake that we would put together a nice program and that we had a superb team. And it’s a great honor for me to introduce most of this superb team, of whom I’m very proud. Thank you.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you so much. Well, good evening, everyone.

AUDIENCE: Good evening.

SECRETARY CLINTON: And I thank you for gathering this evening together and I am delighted to be able to come before Consul General Simkin and his wife, Bess, leave. I want to thank them for their tireless leadership here in Chennai. And as you know, they are officially retiring from the State Department next month. So I know you’ve already had a going away party. I know that the consul general likes to dance to ’80s music, so – (laughter) – there is nothing I can do that will in any way match that, other than to express a deep sense of appreciation for your service to our country, for the excellent expert work that you’ve done for furthering relations here and the other places that you have worked, and to wish you well in the years ahead. Thank you all very much. (Applause.)

This is a first time a secretary of state has made it to Chennai, so I am pleased it could be me, because I’ve had a wonderful day. It has been absolutely superb. Thanks to each and every one of you for what you’ve done to make it so. And it’s one more way that we want to emphasize the importance of the relationship between the United States and India. You see that every day, whether it’s automobile manufacturing plants or IT businesses or processing visas at a backbreaking rate – I’m told over a thousand a day, which seems a lot. You’ve handled more visa applications for skilled temporary workers than any other consulate in the world, and I think each of you could tell me a lot of stories about what it was like before the new system we just implemented began to reduce waiting times. And I hope that it will really help your efficiency in dealing with the great desire that this post has to meet.

I also thank you for your innovation, using Facebook events and malls, live streaming programs that connect audiences throughout South India. And thanks, too, for what you do in your so-called off hours, because it’s not only what you are doing during your day job but the weekends and evenings you spend engaging with schools, NGOs, and other groups. Last year, I’m told, you reached 37,000 people through these events, and that’s 37,000 chances to have an exchange and talk about our country and our relationships.

I know, too, that this is not always easy. It’s done sometimes in tough circumstances. I know the pay freeze is especially painful because of the inflation here. I know that you’ve got to deal with heat, droughts, floods, and – probably worst of all – traffic. But it’s also the case that your commitment means so much to all of us.

I want to say a special word about the locally engaged staff. Nineteen of you have served here for more than twenty years. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you. I know – where’s Stephen George? Is Stephen George here? Well, I know Stephen George has served as a driver for 32 years with a perfect safety record. (Applause.) I know that K.R. Mahesh has been in consular affairs for nineteen years, and his family altogether has 57 years of service, so where’s K.R.? (Applause.) K.R. here? These are two people who are probably still out working somewhere. (Laughter.) But I think the children are understandably ready, and so what I want to do is go and take a picture with the kids and then shake your hands, but mostly I came to say thank you. I want to make sure you say hello to Peter Burleigh. Ambassador Burleigh is back as chargé in New Delhi. Bob Blake, who served as ambassador to Sri Lanka, loves South India, is serving as assistant secretary for South and Central Asia.

So again, thank you all very much, and thank you for the warm welcome to Chennai. (Applause.)

Hillary Rodham Clinton: Remarks on The Working Women's Forum

Remarks on The Working Women's Forum

Remarks

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

Chennai, India

July 20, 2011

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I want to thank my friend and your friend, a wonderful woman who is viewed as a leader around the world, Jaya. (Applause.)

I want you to know that I have admired the work of the Working Women’s Forum for many years. (Applause.) In 1978, there were only 800 women members. Today, there are more than 1 million of you. (Applause.) I am honored to be here with you to celebrate your accomplishments in bringing micro-credit to women, in bringing healthcare and other services to women so they could have a better life for themselves and their children. (Applause.)

I believe in the self-help movement that all of you are a part of, because I have seen the results with my own eyes. From Bangladesh to India to South Africa to Chile and Nicaragua and Latin America, I have seen women’s lives change, as we heard from the wonderful story earlier. Every one of you has a story, and I applaud you for what you have done to help yourselves. (Applause.)

So today, I wanted to bring you some more help, to help more women. (Applause.) I’m very pleased to announce that Goldman Sachs, a very important global financial company, has decided to support a training program through the Indian School of Business to help self-help groups bring even more knowledge and skills about how to take your businesses from the very local village level to the cities, to the countries, to the world. (Applause.)

I also know there are several panchayat members here, and I thank you for working so hard to promote government and democracy at the local level. (Applause.) So I am pleased to announce that the Government of the United States and the Government of India will establish a regional training program at the Asia University of Women to spotlight the success of the panchayat program, and train more women to be local leaders like you.

We also want to continue working with the Working Women’s Forum on the very serious problem we just heard about, violence against women. (Applause.)

And we want to work with you on another problem, and that is the smoke that you breathe when you are cooking for your families. I looked at an exhibition of cooking stoves outside with Dr. Kalpana Balakrishnan of Sri Ramachandra University. Is she here? Is that – yes. Doctor? She is one of the world’s experts on how to make cooking safer for women and children. (Applause.) Because of the health problems caused by breathing smoke, we have worked with many partners around the world to create the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. (Applause.) And we’re very proud that the Indian Government launched its own National Biomass Cookstove Initiative two years ago, that is trying to save lives and improve the conditions for cooking for millions of Indian women.

And so we will work with people around the world to help develop clean cookstoves, help to manufacture them so they are affordable for you to buy them, and we are delighted that we have partners right here with the Working Women’s Forum, with the Confederation of Indian Industries, and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, who have joined the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, to make your lives and the lives of your children better and healthier. (Applause.)

So it is for me a great honor to be here with all of you to celebrate the wonderful work that the Working Women’s Forum has done, to thank you all for the examples you are setting for both your daughters and your sons, and to pledge myself to continue working with you on the important issues that are necessary to empower women so that you have your right to be whoever you want to be and to do what you believe is right and to lay the pathway for your daughters and your sons for a better future. (Applause.)

So, Jaya – Jaya, come down here. Come down here. Come down here. This is a woman who has worked so hard. (Applause.) And all of you will have to decide how you can follow her model, so that you not only help yourselves and your families but you spread the word about microfinance, about bank accounts, about starting businesses, about getting health services, about empowering the women of this state, and giving everyone a chance to live up to your God-given potential. (Applause.)

SECRETARY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: Public Schedule for July 20, 2011

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives to deliver a speech at the Anna Centenary Library in Chennai on July 20, 2011. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged India to be more assertive in Asia, saying the country should play more of a leadership role. "India's leadership has the potential to positively shape the future of the Asia-Pacific... and we encourage you not just to look east, but continue to engage and act east as well," she said in a speech on the second leg of her two-day trip to India. AFP PHOTO / POOL / Saul LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

Public Schedule for July 20, 2011

Public Schedule

Washington, DC

July 20, 2011

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SECRETARY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON:
Secretary Clinton is on foreign travel in New Delhi and Chennai, India. She is accompanied by Under Secretary Hormats, Assistant Secretary Blake, Ambassador Verveer, Special Representative Balderston and Director Sullivan. Click here for more information.

11:10 a.m. LOCAL Secretary Clinton meets with the staff and families of Embassy New Delhi, in New Delhi, India.
(POOLED PRESS COVERAGE)

3:00 p.m. LOCAL Secretary Clinton delivers remarks on "India and the United States: A Vision for the 21st Century," at the Anna Centenary Library in Chennai, India.
(OPEN PRESS COVERAGE)

4:20 p.m. LOCAL Secretary Clinton meets with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, in Chennai, India.
(POOLED CAMERA SPRAY)

5:15 p.m. LOCAL Secretary Clinton tours an exhibition of cookstoves, at the Working Women’s Forum in Chennai, India.
(OPEN PRESS COVERAGE)

5:30 p.m. LOCAL Secretary Clinton delivers remarks to members of India’s Working Women’s Forum and meets with the group’s members, in Chennai, India.
(OPEN PRESS COVERAGE)

6:35 p.m. LOCAL Secretary Clinton observes a dance performance at the Kalakshetra Foundation, in Chennai, India.
(POOLED PRESS COVERAGE)