Ausaf Sayeed | |
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Former Secretary (CPV & OIA) | |
In office 15 March 2022 –30 September 2023 | |
Preceded by | Sanjay Bhattacharya |
Succeeded by | Muktesh Kumar Pardeshi |
Ambassador of India to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia | |
In office 29 April 2019 –14 March 2022 | |
Preceded by | Ahmed Jawed |
Succeeded by | Suhel Ajaz Khan |
Indian High Commissioner to Seychelles | |
In office 17 February 2017 –8 April 2019 | |
Preceded by | Sanjay Panda |
Succeeded by | Dalbir Singh Suhag |
Consul General of India,Chicago | |
In office 5 August 2013 –21 January 2017 | |
Preceded by | Mukta Dutta Tomar |
Succeeded by | Neeta Bhushan |
Ambassador of India to Yemen | |
In office 19 September 2010 –15 July 2013 | |
Succeeded by | Amrit Lugun |
Personal details | |
Born | Hyderabad,Telangana,India | 18 September 1963
Spouse | Farha Sayeed |
Children | Faateh,Faaleh &Azhaan |
Parents |
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Alma mater | Osmania University The American University in Cairo |
Occupation | Retired Ambassador (Former Indian Diplomat) |
Ausaf Sayeed (born 18 September 1963) is a retired Indian diplomat, belonging to Indian Foreign Service of the 1989 batch. He served as the Secretary (Consular, Passport, Visa & Overseas Indian Affairs) from March 2022 to September 2023.
Sayeed is a former career diplomat belonging to the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), 1989 Batch. He served as Secretary (CPV & OIA) in the Ministry of External Affairs from 15 March 2022 to 30 September 2023. He previously served as the Ambassador of India to Saudi Arabia from April 2019 to March 2022. [1] Before this assignment he served as High Commissioner of India to Seychelles from 17 February 2017 till April 2019. [2] Earlier in August 2013 he became the first Muslim and first Hyderabadi to be appointed as the Consul General of India in Chicago . [3] Earlier he served as Ambassador of India to Yemen from September 2010 to July 2013, being the first person of Hadhrami origin to be appointed as India's Ambassador to Yemen. [4]
Sayeed has worked on political, economic, consular, and cultural issues, besides Hajj management. [5]
He launched several business groupings during his assignment in the Persian Gulf countries to promote trade and economic relations between India and Arab states of the Persian Gulf. [6]
Sayeed has contributed to promoting India’s cultural heritage abroad. [7] He was associated with the inauguration of the Maulana Azad Cultural Center in Cairo (1992). In 1997, he organized the "Satyajit Ray: in retrospect", a one-week film festival of Satyajit Ray’s films in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. As Coordinator of the Indian Cultural Center in Qatar, he was instrumental in organizing several cultural and literary events. [8] In 1999, he organized a 9-day festival India Week in Qatar in association with the National Council of Culture, Art and Heritage in Qatar in which several artists from India participated. During his tenure in Copenhagen, Denmark from 2000-2004, he extended support to a project called `Crosscurrents: The Indo-Danish Painters' meet in which joint painting exhibitions and workshops by Indian and Danish painters were organized in various cities in India and Denmark. [9]
During his tenure as the Consul General of India in Jeddah, he organized the first-ever India Festival in Jeddah (September 2005), followed by the First Asian Festival in Jeddah (October 2006) and the First Asian Film Festival in Saudi Arabia (February 2008). He was closely involved with the formation of the Saudi-India Friendship Society [10] in 2006 under the patronage of the Saudi Ministry of Information and Culture. He was also associated with the Saudi-India Civil Society Dialogue. He was instrumental in organizing the visit of the First All Women Saudi Student Delegation (from Dar-Al Hekma College [11] ) to India in 2007.
He formed the Asian Consuls General Club (ACGC) in Jeddah in 2005, which was composed of Consuls General from thirteen Asian countries. He was instrumental in the publication of the book Historic Indo-Arab Ties (September 2005) by the Indian Consulate. He was the main architect behind the introduction of external Urdu examinations of MANUU in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the benefit of Non-resident Indians (NRIs). He has advocated extensive use of digital technology to learn, and spread the Urdu language, especially among the youth and children. [12]
Ausaf Sayeed launched a revamped Saudi–India Business Network (SIBN) [13] in Saudi Arabia in September 2020, initially with chapters in the cities of Jeddah and Riyadh. Later a chapter was launched in Dammam. [14] He also re-launched the Indo-Saudi Medical Forum (ISMF) [15] with chapters in Jeddah and Riyadh to boost cooperation in the healthcare sector between India and Saudi Arabia. Originally, the ISMF was launched in the year 2008 during his tenure in Jeddah as the Consul General of India. [16]
He was one of the key negotiators to set up the Strategic Partnership Council between India and Saudi Arabia during Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi's visit to Riyadh in October 2019 [17] He was also instrumental in the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Yoga [18] between India and Saudi Arabia, the first such agreement signed by any Islamic nation with India. The prestigious Yoga Mithra Award [19] was presented to Ausaf Sayeed by the S-Vyasa University for his efforts to promote Yoga [20] in Saudi Arabia.
As Secretary (CPV & OIA) he has overseen India's overall relations with countries of the GCC and WANA regions and helped in further cementing India's ties with the Arab and Islamic countries. During his tenure, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi visited India as Chief Guest of the Republic Day in January 2023 [21] while Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi visited Egypt in June 2023. [22] The Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia HRH Mohammed Bin Salman Al Saud paid a bilateral visit to India on September 11, 2023, after participating in the G20 Leaders' Summit. [23]
Ausaf Sayeed has published three books:
He has also compiled and edited the Urdu book Kulliyat-e-Awaz Sayeed, [24] which consists of the entire Urdu literary works of his father late Awaz Sayeed. The book Kulliyat-e-Awaz Sayeed was released by Vice President of India Mohammad Hamid Ansari on 13 August 2009. [25]
He is also working on two other books, Haj: an Indian Experience through the Ages and Indian Rubats, Madarsas and Wakfs in the Holy Cities of Makkah and Madinah . [26]
He also has to his credit a research paper on Petrology and Petrogenesis of Syenites from the Cuddapah Basin, Andhra Pradesh , Journal, Geological Society of India, Volume 43, March 1994, pp 225–237. [27]
Kamaran Island is the largest Yemeni island in the Red Sea. The 108 km2 (42 sq mi) island is 18 km (11 mi) long and 7 km (4.3 mi) wide and is strategically located at the southern end of the Red Sea. It is a "shelf island" located in the shallow waters of the Arabian peninsula's continental shelf with coral reefs surrounding three sides of the island. The population numbers 2,200.
Serenata is a Philippine children's choir in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Awaz Bin Sayeed, also spelt Evaz Saeed, was a modern short-story writer, poet, playwright, Khaka-naveez and humorist from Hyderabad, India.
Saudi Arabia is the second biggest tourist destination in the Middle East with over 16 million visiting in 2017. Although most tourism in Saudi Arabia still largely involves religious pilgrimages, there is growth in the leisure tourism sector. As the tourism sector has been largely boosted lately, the sector is expected to a significant industry for Saudi Arabia, reducing its dependence on oil revenues. This is proved as tourism sector is expected to generate $25 billion in 2019. Potential tourist areas include the Hijaz and Sarawat Mountains, Red Sea diving and a number of ancient ruins.
The 'International Indian School Jeddah or IISJED, formerly known as the Embassy of India School, is an elementary and secondary school for the children of Indian nationals in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with boys and girls taught separately in English. It was founded in 1969. The school is part of global International Indian Schools, which also includes International Indian School, Riyadh.
India–Saudi Arabia relations, also referred to as Indian-Saudi relations or Indo-Saudi relations, are the bilateral relations between the Republic of India and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Relations between the two nations are generally strong and close, especially in commercial interests. Indo-Saudi bilateral trade reached US$27.48 billion in the financial year 2017–18, up from US$25.1 billion in the preceding year. Saudi Arabia's exports to India stood at US$22.06 billion whereas India's exports were US$5.41 billion.
Pakistanis in Saudi Arabia are either Pakistani people who live in Saudi Arabia after having been born elsewhere, or are Saudi Arabian-born but have Pakistani roots. By Pakistani roots, this could mean roots linking back to Pakistan or Pakistani diaspora or South Asia. Many Pakistani army officers and soldiers also serve in Saudi Arabia and train the Saudi military cadets. According to a 2023 estimate, 2.64 million Pakistanis live and work in Saudi Arabia.
Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) in Saudi Arabia are the largest community of expatriates in the country, with most of them coming from the states of Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and most recently, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.
Women's sport in Saudi Arabia has been a controversial topic for many years due to the suppression of female participation in sport by conservative Islamic religious authorities.
Saudi Arabia–Syria relations refer to bilateral and economic relations between Saudi Arabia and the Syrian Arab Republic. Diplomatic ties between these two countries of the Middle East have long been strained by the major events in the region. Saudi Arabia has an embassy in Damascus, and Syria has an embassy in Riyadh. Both countries are members of the Arab League and share close cultural ties.
The Saudi Arabia women's national football team is the official women's national football team of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The team is controlled by the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF), the governing body for football in Saudi Arabia.
Sameera Aziz is a Saudi media personality, social worker, radio host, and businesswoman. She is a Jeddah-based Saudi national. Her companies are Sameera Aziz Group and Sameera Aziz Entertainment, the latter of which was the first Saudi production house in India. Aziz is the first Saudi female director in Bollywood. Her events company holds a Guinness World Record for making world's largest human-picture mosaic in 2017.
Sibi George is an Indian civil servant of the Indian Foreign Service cadre who is Ambassador of India to Japan. He has previously served as Ambassador of India to Kuwait, Switzerland, the Holy See as well as the Principality of Liechtenstein. He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1993.
Relations between Italy and Saudi Arabia are the bilateral relations between two nations. Italy has an embassy in Riyadh and Saudi Arabia has an embassy in Rome.
Germany–Saudi Arabia relations refers to the international relations between Germany and Saudi Arabia. Both countries have established a pragmatic partnership centered mainly on economic interests. Saudi Arabia is the second most important trading partner for Germany in the Middle East. The German government regards Saudi Arabia as a partner, as the country can be a moderating influence on radical forces in the Middle East conflict.
Yara International School (YIS) (Arabic: مدرسة يارا العالمية), simply sometimes Yara (Arabic: يارا), is a K–12 gender-isolated English-medium community-based private foreign school in the ad-Dirah district of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, located next to Qasr al-Hokm Metro Station in the erstwhile precincts of the Female Student Study Center of Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University. Established in 2003 by a group of businessmen, it primarily serves the local Indian diaspora and offers curriculum prescribed by the Central Board of Secondary Education. The school previously offered British curriculum alongside the Indian one from 2019 to 2023.