Chennai: Jeremy Pilmore-Bedford is the new British Deputy High Commissioner in Chennai. He succeeds Bharat Joshi.
Pilomore-Bedford comes from UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office's US Network, where he served as Consul General in the Southeast of the United States for four-and-a-half years. He was earlier head of the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America department in London, a press release from the British Deputy High Commission said.
"It is a privilege to represent the UK in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala. Tamil Nadu accounts for eight per cent of India's GDP with annual growth of over 8 per cent, making it the second largest state economy after Maharashtra and second most attractive for doing business," Bedford said.
"My immediate priority is to encourage partners from Tamil Nadu and Kerala with interest or expertise in AI (artificial intelligence), future mobility, fintech, cyber security to actively participate in our future tech festival in Delhi", he said.
"India is our biggest visa operation world-wide and Chennai serves South India & Sri Lanka through seven Visa Application Centres (VACs) in the region. Our Public Affairs team has led pan-India projects driven by Indian civil society to address violence against women and children. British Council in Chennai has links across South India in English Language/Teacher training, NextGen outreach including support to youth employability. Many UK alumni here are friends of the High Commission helping us expand links in school and higher education, research and skills/training", he said.
He also noted that Kerala was envied globally for its high social development ratings and attracted the largest number of British tourists among the Indian states.
