The Kyrgyz Republic has inaugurated its first-ever Honorary Consul Office in Chennai, marking the country’s first official representation in South India, as per a report by ANI.

The office, covering the consular district of Tamil Nadu, is headed by Prakash Rao Venkata Ramana Duvvuri, an eminent scientist, entrepreneur, and global consultant, appointed as the Honorary Consul of Kyrgyzstan.

The initiative aims to strengthen bilateral cooperation in trade, education, culture, tourism, and people-to-people ties.

Affordable medical education for Indian students

Duvvuri highlighted Kyrgyzstan’s appeal for Indian students pursuing medical education. 

“Kyrgyzstan is very reasonable. The entire cost of medical education there is not more than 25 lakhs for all five years. Whereas 25 lakhs is nothing for medical education in this country. In this country, we talk of 1 crore 75 lakhs minimum. As I said, 25 lakhs is the maximum cost, including maintenance and all that. So that's why today you find 10,000 students from South India doing medicine there. And overall from India around 20,000 students are there. A lot of students go to Russia for education,” he told ANI.

Duvvuri added that Kyrgyzstan and other nations that were once part of the Soviet Union are preferred by Indian students for their safety and stability.

Infrastructure and opportunities

Commenting on the country’s infrastructure, Duvvuri noted that while Kyrgyzstan is still developing, the environment is conducive for education and business. 

“I haven't seen but what I understand is that it is reasonably good. It is a developing country. I think the opportunity should be good. And what happened in the USA cannot happen here,” he said.

On the ongoing immigration crackdown in the US, he added, “A country like the US with more than five million Indians, and most of the Indians are in very good positions in the US. I think American citizens themselves will be around more than two million, Indian-Americans-Indians. So Indian citizens are a very strong community, and Trump overnight can't destroy it. Maybe to some extent, it's a setback for newcomers or for the new people to go,” he told ANI.