Houston consulate begins outsourcing OCI,
PIO, passport-renunciation services
GEORGE JOSEPH
The Indian consulate in Houston will outsource the handling of Overseas Citizen of India applications to Travisa
Outsourcing, starting March 15. The consulate will not
accept OCI applications staring February 15. People should
not send any OCI applications by mail or otherwise during
this period.
The outsourcing arrangement is for the areas falling
under the consular jurisdiction of Alabama, Arkansas,
Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Oklahoma and Texas. Travisa Outsourcing will receive OCI
applications starting March 15. All applications received by
them will be acknowledged to the applicants by the next
working day.
The outsourcing arrangement will not affect those applications already under process. They should continue to
deal directly with the consulate, including submission of
additional documents and passports. If the applications
have been returned by the consulate on account of any deficiency will have to resubmit the application to Travisa, and
not to the consulate. Check www.travisaoci.com
The handling of Person of Indian Origin applications are
also outsourced to Travisa, starting February 1. PIO applications were not to be accepted at the consulate from
January 18 to January 31. Check www.travisapio.com
The third service to be outsourced was the renunciation
of Indian citizenship, which too will become effective
February 1. Indian passport holders are required to surrender their passports to the Indian embassy/consulates on
acquisition of foreign citizenship. They will be issued a surrender certificate/renunciation certificate and their passport will be cancelled and returned to them. No renunciation certificate/surrender certificate will be issued if the
last Indian passport is not surrendered physically.
Indian passport holders who acquired foreign citizenship
before June 1, 2010 are required to pay a miscellaneous fee
of $20 for surrender certificate. Those who acquired foreign citizenship on or after June 1, 2010 should pay $175.
The Indian passport cannot be used for travel beyond
three months after acquisition of foreign citizenship. If the
Indian passport, the validity of which expired on or after
January 1, 2005, is retained beyond three years after acquisition of foreign citizenship, a penalty of $250 will be
charged. In addition, a penalty of $250 will be charged in
each case of misuse of the Indian passport for travel after
three months of acquisition of foreign citizenship, subject
to a maximum of $1,250.
Check https://indiavisa.travisaoutsourcing.com/renun-
ciation/homepage
The Indian embassy in Washington, DC, has started the
process of outsourcing January 11. Others will start it
according to the following schedule, according to Travisa
officials:
February 1: Houston Consulate (PIO and renunciation
services and OCI services from March 15); February 15:
New York; March 8: San Francisco; and March 22:
Chicago.
Rajasthan nonprofit ARTH wins MacArthur Foundation grant
SUMAN GUHA MOZUMDER
The John D and Catherine T
MacArthur Foundation last week
named the Rajasthan-based Action
Research & Training for Health
among 11 organizations in six coun-
tries that received the 2010
MacArthur Award for Creative and
Effective Institutions.
The awards recognize exceptional
foundation grantees and help ensure
their sustainability with grants of
$350,000 to $1 million each. The
foundation does not seek or accept
nominations. To qualify, organiza-
tions must demonstrate exceptional
creativity and effectiveness; have
reached a critical or strategic point in
their development; have budgets
under $5 million; show strong lead-
ership and stable financial manage-
ment; and engage in work central to
one of MacArthur’s core programs.
ARTH will receive $350,000 from
the foundation for its commitment to
promote sexual and reproductive
health, neonatal and child health,
and health systems and policy in
Rajasthan. ARTH, the foundation
noted, demonstrates 24x7 rural
delivery and newborn care, trains skilled
birth attendants, and operates referral sys-
tems for complications, increasing women’s
access to maternal care.
India leads the world in the number of
women who die during childbirth — with a
An AR TH trained nurse on a post natal visit
COUR TES Y: MACARTHUR FOUNDATION
fifth of the global total — as women
throughout rural, impoverished regions
often deliver at home without a trained
attendant. In 1997 the husband-wife team
of Dr Sharad D Iyengar, a public health
specialist and pediatrician, and gynecolo-
gist Dr Kirti Iyengar formed ARTH to help
address this crisis. ARTH offers field-based
health services in two districts with an
impoverished rural and tribal population of
58,000, while carrying out research, train-
ing, and advocacy work across Rajasthan.
Its innovations include the promo-
tion of task-shifting, wherein nurse-
midwives are trained in rural areas
to free up the limited number of
physicians to deal with serious com-
plications, while increasing the total
number of women receiving care
from a trained provider. ARTH’s
task-shifting work has been
embraced and replicated by the
Rajasthan government, which con-
tracted ARTH to train ‘master train-
ers’ who then train skilled birth
attendants statewide.
In 2007, ARTH founded a School
of Midwifery Practice and Training
in Primary Health Care, and it
advises the Indian government and
the World Health Organization on
rural health issues.
ARTH will use its $350,000
award money to purchase perma-
nent office space, complete its field
campus, and contribute to its
endowment.
The Royal Society for Protection of
Nature of Thimphu, Bhutan’s only
national non-profit focused primari-
ly on the conservation of the coun-
try’s famed environment and biodi-
versity, was also granted $350,000.
‘These exceptional organizations effec-
tively address pressing national and inter-
national challenges and they have had an
impact that is disproportionate to their
small size,’ MacArthur President Robert
Gallucci said.
