India Newsletter, December
Greetings to the worldwide family of EMI India,
It is exciting to be writing to you in the first web-published version of the Indian Thread. This publication has been a fixture of EMI India for many years, and we are excited to continue producing it for the wider reach that the new EMI website will bring.
With this first web edition of the Thread, we will jump right into a major announcement. After nearly seven years of service with EMI, my family and I have moved back to the US and I will no longer be directing the India Office after 2020. For several years now we have been feeling the need to be in a stable environment with less transition for our four children. We were planning to move back to the US in the summer of 2021, but with COVID and all that has come with it, we came back to the US in early July and I have been directing the office remotely. Starting in 2021, I will be working to set up and run a job-training focused warehouse in our old neighbourhood in Memphis Tennessee, and plan to remain engaged part-time as a Business as Mission consultant to EMI.
So that brings me to an introduction to EMI India’s new leadership team: Dan S. as the India office’s 5th Director, along with Madhulika B. and Surajeet R. as Deputy Directors. Dan is a Structural Engineer from the USA and has been a member of our team since 2016, Madhulika is an architect from Jharkhand, has been on staff since 2014, and Surajeet is a civil engineer from Orissa, who heads up our construction/field engineering services, has been on staff since 2015.
It is certainly sad to have departed India and to be leaving the EMI India team, but I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for the office under the leadership of these three!
Andy K.
Director, EMI India
EMI India Transitions
EMI India 2020 in Review
COVID shutdown in India came suddenly in March, thankfully no one from the team was trapped outside of India or Delhi, but there were a few close calls. Three expatriated staff and our expatriated intern ended up leaving earlier than planned for the end of their assignment or previously scheduled home assignments. All of our Indian staff choose to stay in Delhi and work from home rather than return to their home places. To date, there have been no confirmed cases of COVID on our team. There have been a few suspected cases though that went untested. We are very gratefully for overall good health and protection for our team.
Nearly all of our pre-COVID projects continued, and we have managed to start new projects for several returning and two new clients. We were also able to complete our second design-build interior construction project for a training centre in Delhi NCR with a two-month break in the middle due to the COVID shutdown.
After working from our homes since March, all our staff that are in Delhi are back in the office. Our expatriated staff are beginning to make their way to India, with two arrivals in September and October, and the remainder expected at the start of next year.
We have been blessed to stay quite busy with project work. All of our major projects continued with only slight pauses and we have also been able to start several new design project in the Delhi metro area. This has been important as cross-country travel remains very difficult. We are also attempting a few projects with remote volunteers, which is another very important “skill” for the coming months and years before international travel returns to some normalcy. Be on the lookout for more remote volunteer opportunities that we will post on the projects section of the website.
