Category: PIO’s

Record 130-plus Indian-Americans at key positions in Biden administration

U.S. President Biden shattered the record of his predecessor Donald Trump, who had appointed more than 80 Indian-Americans

U.S. President Joe Biden has appointed more than 130 Indian-Americans to key positions in his administration so far, the best representation from the community that makes up around one per cent of the American population.

In doing so he has not only fulfilled his promise to the community that he had made as a presidential candidate in 2020, but also shattered the record of his predecessor Donald Trump, who had appointed more than 80 Indian-Americans and his previous boss Barack Obama, who had appointed over 60 Indian-Americans to key positions during his eight years of presidency.

More than 40 Indian-Americans has been elected at various state and federal levels including four in the U.S. House of Representatives. Not to miss the more than 20 Indian-Americans leading top U.S. companies.

While the first-ever presidential appointment was done during the time of Ronald Regan, this time Mr. Biden has appointed Indian-Americans to almost all departments and agencies of his administration.

“Indian-Americans have been imbued with the sense of seva (service) and this is reflected in their enthusiasm to pursue positions in public service instead of the private sector,” Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur, philanthropist and venture capitalist M. R. Rangaswami told PTI.

“The Biden administration has now appointed or nominated the largest group to date and needless to say we are proud of our people and their accomplishments for the United States,” Mr. Rangaswami said. Mr. Rangaswami is founder and head of Indiaspora, a U.S.-based global organization for Indian-origin leaders. Indiaspora keeps a track of Indian-origin leaders.

Mr. Biden, who has maintained a close relationship with the community since his Senator days, often jokes around about his Indian relationship. He made history in 2020 by selecting Indian-origin Kamala Harris as his running mate.

The list of Indian-Americans in the White House as compiled by Indiaspora reflects that there would be only a few meetings inside the White House or in Mr. Biden’s Oval Office that would not have an Indian-American presence.

His speech writer is Vinay Reddy, while his main advisor on COVID-19 is Dr. Ashish Jha, his advisor on climate policy is Sonia Aggarwal, special assistant on criminal justice is Chiraag Bains, Kiran Ahuja heads the Office of Personnel Management, Neera Tanden is his senior advisor, and Rahul Gupta is his drug czar.

Last week when India’s Ambassador to the U.S., Taranjit Singh Sandhu, hosted a reception at India House on the occasion of Independence Day, Indian-Americans from his administration were representing almost all major branches of the U.S. government.

Young Vedant Patel is now the Deputy Spokesperson at the Department of State, while Garima Verma is the Digital Director in the Office of the First Lady. Mr. Biden has also nominated several Indian-Americans to key ambassadorial positions.

According to the list prepared by Indiaspora, more than 40 Indian-Americans have been elected to various offices across the country. Four are in the House of Representatives — Dr. Ami Bera, Ro Khanna, Raja Krishnamoorthi and Pramila Jayapal. This includes four Mayors.

Led by Indian-Americans Sunder Pichai of Google and Satya Nadella of Microsoft, there are over two dozen Indian-Americans heading U.S. companies. Among others include Shantanu Narayen of Adobe, Vivek Lall of General Atomics, Punit Renjen of Deloitte, Raj Subramaniam of FedEx.

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Kerala woman aims to join league of Indian-origin women astronauts

Canada-based space entrepreneur Aathira Preetharani, who hails from Thiruvananthapuram, has been selected for an astronaut training programme of the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS) in the US.

After completing the programme, Aathira hopes to join the league of Indian-origin women astronauts like Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams.

But the 24-year-old’s eventual flight to space would be special as she would be proudly sporting the Indian tricolour on her space suit. “Though I am based in Canada, I applied for the astronaut training programme as an Indian citizen. So I will be training as an Indian national there, with the tricolour on my training suit,” Aathira told TNIE in an online interaction from Ottawa, Canada. Aathira was selected under Project PoSSUM, an aeronomy research programme, offered by IIAS.

“PoSSUM trains people to become citizen astronauts so that you do not remain a mere passenger when you go out to space but can also carry out valuable research activities,” said Aathira. In the run-up to joining the astronaut training programme at Florida Tech in the US, she is busy honing her skills as a fighter pilot. “Scuba diving and fighter pilot experience would stand an astronaut trainee in good stead for the mission ahead,” she added.

Aathira had to wait for two years to be fully cleared to fly a fighter jet and her training sessions are slated to begin this month. An alumnus of St Thomas Central School in Thiruvananthapuram, Aathira was fascinated by space right from an early age. Her interest in space was further nurtured by the sessions held by Aastro, an amateur astronomers’ society in Thiruvananthapuram. She met her future husband Gokul at Aastro and their common interest in space made the bond stronger.

At the age of 18, Aathira moved out of her home to live on her own, with the earnings from computer programming assignments. “A year later, I moved to Canada to pursue a course in robotics. However, I changed track and began efforts to launch my own company that specialises in building space tugs to help interplanetary explorations, service satellites, and resolve the space debris problem in the earth’s orbit,” she said. Gokul, who was previously with Isro and later moved to Canada to join Aathira, is also part of the startup named Exo-Geo Aerospace Inc.

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Campus Names New Dean for the School of Engineering

After a nationwide search, Rakesh Goel was selected as UC Merced’s next dean of the School of Engineering.

Goel is a seasoned academic leader who currently serves as executive associate dean in the College of Engineering at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly).

Before he arrived at Cal Poly, Goel was an assistant professor of Civil Engineering at Syracuse University and worked at the Earthquake Engineering Research Center at UC Berkeley as an assistant research engineer. He has industry experience both in India and the U.S. in civil and structural engineering. He is a registered civil engineer in the State of California and is a certified safety assessment program worker for the California Office of Emergency Services.

Goel is a national and international leader in the discipline of earthquake analysis and design structures. His work has been adapted by seismic codes and guidelines, such as the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) ASCE 7, FEMA-356, California Building Code and ASCE 61. He has authored/co-authored more than 150 publications. He has been awarded the Amman Fellowship, the Huber Research Prize and the Norman Medal by the American Society of Civil Engineers, among many other recognitions.

He is a fellow of the ASCE and the Structural Engineering Institute, where he has chaired three prominent committees and served on the editorial board for the Journal of Structural Engineering and Earthquake Spectra.

Goel earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, India. He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in structural engineering from UC Berkeley.

He succeeds Mark Matsumoto, who has served as the school’s dean since 2015. Goel is expected to join the campus in the fall.

news.ucmereced.edu

New President and Vice President of the National Library of Wales appointed

The Deputy Minister for Arts and Sport, Dawn Bowden has announced the appointment of a new President and Vice President for the National Library of Wales.

Ashok Ahir has been appointed as the new President. Mr Ahir has been Interim President of the National Library since September 2021.

Andrew Evans has been appointed the new Vice President. Mr Evans is a consultant specialising in fundraising and business development for start-ups, charities and not-for-profits, particularly in the cultural sector.

The Library’s President is accountable to the Welsh Government’s Deputy Minister for Arts and Sports for the library’s performance and for the delivery of strategic priorities

source: gov.wales

Jaipur pottery, Kashmir papier mache set to adorn walls of US’ Ivy Lodge 

Meet Shaunali Nanda, who is all set to take off to the US as the only Indian among 20 international interior designers picked to decorate a historic home for the Hampton Designer Showhouse next month.

The project is part of this year’s Hampton Designer Showhouse that’s been raising funds to support Stony Brook Hospital in the area for the last 20 years. As part of this endeavour, designers from across the world are invited to reimagine and transform the spaces within an iconic property. Nanda will be recreating one of the bedrooms on the second floor of the cottage.

“I’ve decided that the room is going to be all about everything made in India. We are doing customised wallpaper and matching blinds. We will be using blue and white pottery elements for the wall plates and a lot of papier mache as accessories and, of course, a very nice handwoven rug and lots of pillows,” says Delhi-based Nanda, adding, “The room will come together as a true representation of what we do best.”

Taking inspiration from books and references from the forts and palaces of India, the designer has chosen a dainty dandelion motif in blue, block printed by hand on white linen, for the blinds that she believes will grab attention as soon as one enters the room. The same design will continue on the canvas wallpaper to coordinate. Versions of the print have also been done for cushions, quilts and a throw.

The passage to the bedroom will also be linked with the dandelion wallpaper, which will be further embellished by motifs of the unique blue pottery plates from Jaipur in the form of wall sconces.
Explaining her choice of colour, the 48-year-old designer says, “Blue and white is so eternal
for Americans and since the cottage is by the seashore, for me it seemed a natural choice.”  
It’s not all blue, though. Nanda has picked a refreshing mint green for the bathroom in the same dandelion motif. The flowers in the bathroom will be red. Again, sticking to another classic combo—red and green.

While Nanda is best known for her brand, Sloane Luxury Interiors, which boasts classic designs for contemporary tastes, her latest undertaking is ‘Sloane by Hand’, a project she started during the pandemic-induced lockdown in 2020. The entire mood board for her showcase for the Ivy Lodge has been sourced and created by Sloane by Hand, which she is looking to now put on the global map.

If anyone can do that, it’s her. Having studied, trained and worked at institutions like Sotheby’s and Christie’s, she went on to work with luxury houses such as Hermès, Tiffany, Chanel and Bulgari, gathering the best knowledge in terms of high design. Nanda’s diverse experience over the years across different parts of the world and her research led her to the conclusion that the “biggest commodity abroad is hand-done”.

“I know I’m not the first one to do this––lots of people are already doing it––but I keep it by hand,” the designer says, adding, “Also, I went right down to the root level. I went to the blue potter in Rajasthan and saw how he lives and works. I saw his humility, patience and understanding of the clay he works with.

I went to Kashmir and saw papier mache artisans at work. I’ve seen how they don’t even have enough light for such detailed work and have to sit by a window when they paint.”Nanda says she is also hoping to touch the hearts of many Indians who live in America and are the richest minority there. “They have a life there now that they’re American, but they have a heritage that they sometimes want to call out to. I’m hoping to touch many of those lives, and at the same time, but all this on an international design map,” she says. Nanda’s team begins installation on August 1, and the showhouse, which will see the who’s who of South Hampton and New York, will open on August 13 with a gala evening.

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From media to medicine to Apple Health V-P: Sumbul Desai’s Indian roots is common strand

If the rebel within her had prevailed, Dr Sumbul Desai would have been a journalist or a media honcho. But after many pivots in her career, the Sweden-born with Indian roots is now one of the most influential women in global tech — as Apple’s VP-Health.

“You’d never think that all of those stops you are going to make are going to help you with your ultimate role. All that learning ends up putting you exactly where you should be,” Desai told The Indian Express on video call from California.

Desai joined Apple five years ago to strengthen the Cupertino-based tech giant’s foray into personal health technologies. Before that, she was Vice Chair of Strategy and Innovation in the Department of Medicine at Stanford Medicine as well as Associate Chief Medical Officer at Stanford Healthcare.

And yet, those early stints with the Walt Disney Company and ABC News still stand out in her impressive resume. “My parents wanted me to be either a doctor or an engineer,” says Desai. Echoing millions of Indians across the world, her parents, who moved from India to Sweden and then the US, were no different when it came to their children, she points out.

Karnataka’s Dechamma Poonacha wins Mrs. Fitness Queen at Mrs. UAE International

Dechamma Poonacha(Dechamma A.P) has won the Mrs Fitness Queen Title at Mrs UAE International by ‘Being Muskaan’, a leading UAE based brand launched by Meena Asrani, focused towards women empowerment.

The contest was held on June 26th at Radisson Red, Dubai Silicon Oasis and was open to all nationalities residing in UAE.

Mrs. Dechamma is currently a home maker. She is a former student of Rotary English Medium School Moodbidri and also was the student of the first batch. 

She further continued her high school an PU education at Jain highschool and PU college Moodbidri.

She pursued her graduation at Sri Bhuvanendra College Karkala where she won Miss. Bhuvanendra in 1997 and Miss. Jaycee Kulyadi queen, Karlala in 1998.

She was born in Coorg but was raised in Moodbidri.

english.varthabharati.in

Forensic scientist from Delhi grabs spot in world’s top ‘50 Next’

Risha joined the group of innovators selected from more than 400 candidates across 30 territories as the next-gen leaders of gastronomy.

A Delhi-based forensic scientist, Dr Risha Jasmine Nathan has been named among the world’s top 50 leading gastronomy game-changers in a prestigious list celebrating the next generation of leaders creating sustainable solutions for the global food and drink industry. 

Risha joined the group of innovators selected from more than 400 candidates across 30 territories as the next-gen leaders of gastronomy. “My research, which I completed in New Zealand in 2020, was about using food and vegetable peels and converting them into beads that could suck up heavy metals from drinking water,” said Dr Nathan.

The research was a part of the “Science Innovators” category which gave a sustainable solution to tackle the problem of water contamination in the developing world. “My goal is to make use of the science of toxicology to work towards the creation of a safer and healthier world,” she said. Nathan, who will soon be a lecturer at the Anglia Ruskin University in the UK later this year, is researching more on the topic, hoping to change the lives of millions who still don’t have access to clean water.

Her technique of removing contaminants such as heavy metals from water has been recognised as a game-changer method in recent times. According to her, while working as an assistant professor of forensic science at Galgotias University in Uttar Pradesh, she came across a technique called ‘biosorption’, where agricultural waste products are used to remove metals from wastewater. From there she got the idea that fruit and vegetable peels could be turned into ‘green filters’ to clean drinking water. “The idea provides viable drinking water decontamination method, is cost efficient and solves problem of landfill dumping, as it helps recycle tonnes of peel waste that end up in landfills every year, causing land pollution and generating methane gas,” she added.

Along with Risha, three other Indian innovators were also mentioned in the list, unveiled at a first-ever live awards ceremony in the Spanish city of Bilbao on Thursday.

They were Bengaluru-based Vinesh Johny and Anusha Murthy, Mumbai-based Nidhi Pant and Singapore-born Indian-origin food entrepreneur Travinder Singh. The ‘50 Next’ is a list released every year which celebrates people from across the food and drink department to complement the annual rankings of ‘The World’s 50 Best Restaurants’.

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India 3rd most common birthplace of Australians

The census data provides a snapshot of the cultures and languages that make up Australia by providing figures on cultural diversity, country of birth, ancestry and languages used at home.

Hinduism has grown by 55.3% in Australia as India has overtaken China and New 
Zealand to become the third largest country of birth for Australian residents, 2021 census data has found.


The census conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics also says that Punjabi language has shown the largest increase of 80.4% in the last five years.

The statistics are known as Estimated Resident Population (ERP). The census data provides a snapshot of the cultures and languages that make up Australia by providing figures on cultural diversity, country of birth, ancestry and languages used at home.

The 2021 census found that almost half of Australians have a parent born overseas (48.2%) and the population continues to be drawn from around the globe, with 27.6% reporting a birthplace overseas. Australia has welcomed more than one million people into Australia since 2017. 

The largest increase in country of birth, outside Australia was India with 2,17,963 additional people counted. India has moved past China and New Zealand to become the third largest country of birth behind Australia and England. The second largest increase in country of birth was Nepal, with an additional 67,752 people, meaning the population of Nepali born has more than doubled since 2016.

The number of people who used a language other than English at home has increased by 7,92,062 from 2016 to over 5.5 million people. Meanwhile, Mandarin continues to be the most common language other than English used at home with 685,274 people speaking it, followed by Arabic with 367,159 people. 

While Punjabi had the largest increase with the 2021 census showing over 239,000 people used Punjabi at home, an increase of 80.4% from 2016. Talking with this newspaper over phone, Federation of Indian Associations of Victoria, Australia President, Surya Prakash Soni said the number of Indians coming to Australia has increased in the last few years. “As per the latest Australian census, the demography of this country is rapidly changing and it is becoming multicultural,” he said.

Religions too growing in oz

Christianity (43.9%) is the most common religion in Australia. Hinduism has grown to 2.7 per cent of the population while Islam has grown to 3.2% 

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Two States: The Indians in Hong Kong and their unique legacy

Most of the 50,000 Hong Kong residents who commute on the Star Ferry every day are likely unaware of its roots in Mumbai. But that’s not the city’s only Indian connection.

The Morning Star first set sail in 1880, the brainchild of Dorabjee Naorojee Mithaiwala, a cook from Mumbai who launched Hong Kong’s first ferry service. Mithaiwala landed in Hong Kong in 1852, coming, according to one account, as a stowaway. The captain of his ship allowed him to stay as a cook. Putting his quickly learned culinary skills to good use, he then launched a successful bakery, one of many profitable ventures. The serial entrepreneur’s greatest legacy, however, was the Kowloon Ferry Company, which he later sold, and was renamed Star Ferry.

Most of the 50,000 Hongkongers who every day take the ferry, which has over the years been revamped and upgraded, are probably unaware of its roots in Mumbai. But what’s remarkable is that Star Ferry is by no means the only enduring Hong Kong institution with an Indian connection.

A short walk from one of the ferry’s piers on Hong Kong Island in the bustling Wan Chai district is Ruttonjee Hospital, first founded in the early 20th century by Jehangir Ruttonjee as a sanatorium to help fight tuberculosis, and subsequently expanded into a world-class hospital by the Ruttonjee-Shroff family, who are still deeply involved in health and social welfare activities in Hong Kong.

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