NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday said that the Spanish consulate in Bengaluru will be opened soon.
In his address to the Indian community in Madrid, Jaishankar said that 2026 will be marked as a “dual year” of celebrating culture, tourism and Artificial Intelligence.
“In terms of our people-to-people relationship, I hope that the people of Barcelona will be grateful that we have a consulate there. There will soon be a Spanish consulate in Bengaluru. These are good signs that our relationship is deepening because you can say that the business is every bigger… We have decided that we will mark 2026 as a dual year in which we will celebrate culture, tourism and artificial intelligence in both countries, so until 2025 we will work hard to prepare for 2026,” he said. Jaishankar.
Praising the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government, Jaishankar said that in the last 10 years, the biggest change he has seen is the importance that India and Indians have given to the contribution of the diaspora.
“In the last 10 years we have built and given away 40 million homes to low-income people. Since then, the average Indian family is 5 people, 40 million homes represent 54 times the population of Spain. If we look at health , today 1/3 of India, means that 400 million people, which is almost 9 or 10 times the population of Spain, are covered by free or subsidized healthcare through Ayushman Bharat. The number of beneficiaries of gas cylinders is 110 million stoves, not people… If we consider even cashless payments, we carry out transactions worth 16 billion in a month. “The United States earns between 4,000 and 5,000 million a year, we earn 16,000 million in a month,” he added.