The moment Governor of New Jersey Phil Murphy signed the Sister State Partnership Agreement with Telangana Chief Secretary SK Joshi, the state’s Industry minister KT Rama Rao let the cat out of the bag. Disclosing that he had lived in New Jersey, KTR jocularly mentioned that he was going to ask the Governor to get him a honorary citizenship of New Jersey.
“I think that is in the fineprint,” Governor Murphy joined in the good-natured banter.
“Yes, it was. They made you sign it,” retorted KTR, to a round of laughter.
It was good to see an Indian politician engage in light-hearted American kind of humour instead of being stiff in front of foreign guests.
The agreement is New Jersey’s first sister state arrangement with any Indian state. It will facilitate cooperation in areas of economic development such as Information Technology, Biotech, Fintech, Media, Data centres, clean energy, higher education, tourism, culture, healthcare, pharma and life sciences.
Governor Murphy who met the Prime Minister in New Delhi on Tuesday, would move to Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Agra after his Hyderabad stop. While in Hyderabad, the Governor also signed an MoU between New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission and the Telugu Film Producers Guild to promote Telugu film shoots in New Jersey.
Categories: Telangana