NEW DELHI: External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday said that soon the consulate of Spain will open in Bengaluru.
While addressing to Indian community in Madrid, Jaishankar said that the 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 the people of Barcelona welcome 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 the business is becoming bigger…We have decided that we will mark 2026 as a dual year. A dual year where we will be celebrating culture, tourism and Artificial Intelligence in both countries. So through 2025, we will be working hard to prepare for 2026,” Jaishankar said.
Praising the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government, Jaishankar said that in the last 10 years, the biggest change that he have seen is the importance that India and Indians have put on the contribution of the diaspora.
“In the last 10 years, we have built and given 40 million homes to people of low income. Since, the average Indian family is 5, 40 million homes means 54 times the population of Spain. If you look at health, today 1/3 of India, means 400 million people, which means almost 9 or 10 times the population of Spain, is covered by free health or subsidised health through Ayushman Bharat. The number of beneficiaries of gas cylinders is 110 million kitchens, not people…When you look even at cashless payments, we do transactions worth 16 billion in a month. America does 4-5 billion in a year, we do 16 billion in a month,” he added.
