Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
September 01, 2005

Ambassador visits Pittsburgh
Thursday, September 01, 2005

By Corilyn Shropshire, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Unlike many government officials, Ronen Sen, India's ambassador to the United States, seems to enjoy the anything-goes, back-and-forth banter that a question-and-answer session offers.

So much that Sen arguably spent more time fielding questions than giving speeches in public meetings during a whirlwind 2 1/2-half-day visit to Pittsburgh that concludes today.

On Tuesday night, for example, he patiently answered a string of questions on the economic future of the world's fastest-growing democracy before a largely Indian crowd of hundreds at a forum hosted at Carnegie Mellon University by the university and TiE Pittsburgh, an Indian entrepreneurial group.

And yesterday, standing before a group of about 120 business leaders and academics at the Duquesne Club, Downtown, Sen tackled such topics as promoting continued U.S. investment in India, to the once-prickly relations between the Untied States and India, to the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Nothing was off-limits, Sen told the crowds, and nothing was, particularly as Indian and Indian-American students pressed him on hot-button issues.

They wanted to know why India continued to trail its fellow burgeoning Asian superpower, China, in manufacturing and what can be done to normalize relations with its next-door adversary, Pakistan.

Perhaps the biggest challenge facing India in the coming years, however, is not managing its rapid economic growth and status as a global innovation hub but the need to build reliable sources of energy as well as functional highways, airports and other infrastructure critical to India's continued competitiveness, Sen said. "Eighty percent of oil and gas requirements come from imports," he said.

Sen was in town to receive an honorary doctorate in public service for his years of diplomatic work from Chatham College, which was kicking off its school year and an international program that will focus on India this year.

Before taking the job as India's chief diplomat to Washington a year ago, Sen served as ambassador to Mexico, Russia and the United Kingdom. During his tightly scheduled local trip, he met with local and state elected officials, business leaders and local university chiefs, and was feted by local Indians and Indian-Americans.