Professor Anil Sooklal, the South African High Commissioner to India, Bangladesh and Nepal, was commended for "diplomatic excellence in education and development" on the occasion of Higher and Tertiary Education Day on Tuesday.
The event was held by the Confederation of Indian Universities, and partners, including the World Academy of Higher Education and Development, in New Delhi.
Speaking to the POST today, Professor Sooklal said: "I am deeply privileged to be felicitated by the Confederation of Indian Universities, a prestigious umbrella body of Indian universities.
"In the past six months since my arrival in India, I have made raising the profile of South Africa in India as well as the strong historical relations between our two countries and people's a priority in my extensive interactions with the national and state governments, universities, think-tanks, business communities, and civil society organisations, including cultural, religious and sporting bodies a priority.
"I have to date visited eight states either as a guest of honour, panelist, speaker at academic forum, trade and investment conferences as well as at over six universities and cultural/religious institutions. To date, I have engaged in over 50 such engagements.
"The award is in recognition of my work, especially on the education and development front, in promoting relations between our two countries as well as India Africa relations."
Professor Sooklal was the only diplomat felicitated at the ceremony. The other recipients were chancellors, vice-chancellors, principals and students from numerous universities in India.
He said his "major focus" was advancing economic relations between the countries.
"A number of Indian companies through my interaction have opened operations in South Africa, especially in the ICT sector. Likewise, we are focusing on South African companies investing in India and are assisting several in this regard by playing a facilitating role.
"We assisted two major visiting delegations from South Africa from the energy sector, led by ministry of electricity officials and Eskom, looking at how India has dealt with Independent Power Producers as well as an interdepartmental delegation led by officials of the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies.
"They looked at India’s success with regard to Digital Public Infrastructure and empowerment of, especially rural communities and the role it played in development and using technology in addressing poverty and inequality among others.
"We also are working closely with Minister Patricia De Lille, who was in India in December 2024 on a tourism roadshow to significantly scale up tourism arrivals from India, which is one of the world's fastest growing outbound tourism markets."
With Freedom Day being celebrated next week, Professor Sooklal said the South African High Commission and the consulate in Mumbai would jointly host Freedom Day celebrations at the Taj Colaba Hotel on April 28 in Mumbai.
He said South Africa and India would continue to work closely together with like minded-partners to shape the evolving multipolar world order that was inclusive, fair and just.
Sooklal will return to South Africa in May and is looking forward to seeing family and friends.