Dear Friends,

 

It gives me great pleasure to announce that after three years of working on the  India Sister City project, we  now have  a formal agreement between Greater Cincinnati and Mysore, India as of July 12 2012. The agreement was signed by Mayor Mallory and Honorable Member of the Indian Parliament Mr H. Vishwanath.

 

It was indeed a great honor to have with us on that day, Her Excellency Nirupama Rao, the Indian Ambassador to US, to commemorate the occasion at a festive gala together with  the Honorable Member of the Indian Parliament, Mr H.Vishwanath, Mr Steve Chabot, US Congressman and other honored guests.

 

The road to choosing a city in India a country with such rich diversity was challenging. The core group of founding members worked through this process by first identifying a list of possible cities in India. We looked for similarities in geography, cultural interests, history and willingness of the city to work in a sister city relationship. Further, Sister City International's criterion was that that we choose a city in India that has no other sister city arrangement with the US. This immediately eliminated several of the larger cities.

 

Using this list, committee members then made comparisons between our city of Cincinnati and the various proposed Indian cities for similarities in Geography, cultural interests, history and willingness of the city to work in a sister city relationship.  We collected input from the parks department and the city to guide us.

 

  Two cities Nagpur and Mysore were under consideration by the committee.  The immediate response of the Mysoreans helped spur the decision forward.  The city of Mysore rose to the fore on its merit as a historic city providing all the benefits of art and culture that is such an integral part of the city of Cincinnati

 

With your help, we have chosen the cosmopolitan, history and heritage rich city of Mysore, once ruled by the Wodeyar Kings, Mysore has much to offer to anyone, such as rich culture in music and art and world class companies such as Infosys and state- of- the - art universities and technology centers.

 

Please look through the pages of the website and learn more about your city and the city of Mysore and the collaborative relationship in motion.

It is a privilege to represent such a vibrant community in Greater Cincinnati.

Dr. Ratee Apana