Obama appoints record number of Indian-Americans in 2013

December 29, 2013

obamaWashington, Dec 29: Indian-Americans never had it so good in the US, as a record number of members from the over three million-strong community were appointed to key positions in the White House in 2013.

Reflecting his special affection, President Barack Obama appointed a record number of Indian-Americans in the first year of his second innings at the White House, which experts say recognises the inherent talent of this ethnic community.

Possibly for the first time ever, more than a dozen Indian-Americans have been given key positions in the White House, while there are hardly any important departments where Indian-Americans do not occupy key posts.

There is no official list of Indian-Americans in the Obama Administration, but according to a list compiled by the PTI, the number easily crosses 50 -- a record figure so far.

Five Indian-Americans are holding key positions in the Obama Administration, which have been confirmed by the United States Senate.

While Rajiv Shah, Administrator of USAID, continues to be the highest ranking Indian-American in the administration; the most important administrative appointment of the year was that of Nisha Biswal, Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs.

Azita Raji, Member, President's Commission on White House Fellowship; Islam Siddiqui, Chief Agricultural Negotiator, US Trade Representative, and Vinai Thummalapally, Executive Director, Select USA, Department of Commerce, are the three others confirmed as administration officials by the Senate.

If confirmed by the Senate, Vivek Murthy, would be the first-ever Indian-American Surgeon General.

Two other Indian-Americans awaiting confirmation from the Senate include Arun Kumar, Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Director General of the US and Foreign Commercial Service.

Puneet Talwar, who played a key role in the Iranian nuclear deal, recently testified before the Senate for the key position of the Assistant Secretary of State for Political- Military Affairs.

If confirmed, for the first time ever two Assistant Secretary of State positions at the State Department would be held by Indian-Americans.

Obama himself praised Indian-Americans when he met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the White House on September 27.

"Indian-Americans make extraordinary contributions to the United States every single day - businessmen, scientists, academics, now Miss America is of Indian-American descent, and I think it's a signal of how close our countries are," Obama said.

In fact the top two positions in the South and Central Asia Bureau of the State Department are being held by Indian Americans. Atul Keshap was recently appointed as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for South Asia and is Deputy to Biswal.

In fact, the State Department over the past few years has seen a steady increase in number of Indian-Americans gaining key diplomatic positions.

In his remarks at the swearing in of Biswal, Secretary of State John Kerry recognised the talent of Indian-Americans.

"Nisha's experience and the success that so many Indian Americans bring to the American table shows to everybody in the world the deep ties that we have between the United States and India," Kerry said.

"When I joined, I knew of only two other Indian Americans; today, we have several dozens serving their country all around the world to advance American interests and promote American values," Keshap told PTI.

"A particular pleasure is seeing how many Indian Americans – ably led by Assistant Secretary Biswal - choose to spend their careers at the State Department working to advance relations between our two great democracies; they are building a legacy of accomplishment that will be of lasting benefit to both of our peoples for many decades to come," Keshap said.

"I think Indian American community's talents are being recognised," Ami Bera, the only Indian American in the current Congress, told PTI, referring to the large number of key positions being held by young Indian Americans in the various wings of the Obama Administration.

"I think that the first generation my generation who are born and raised here...many went into medicine, engineering and so forth. But the next generation our children and grandchildren...I think they are growing at being open to many different paths...political science, law etc so I think it is natural progression," he said.

While Bera has been a source of inspiration for the young Indian-Americans, this year also saw Indian-Americans entering the judiciary with a bang as Sri Srinivasan became the first South Asian to be sworn in as a judge of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Prior to Obama's presidency, there had only been one South Asian federal judge nominated and confirmed to a lifetime appointment.

Obama has nominated five more including Srinivasan.

Among others being; Indira Talwani to the District Court Massachusetts, Vince Chhabria for District Court Northern District of California, and Manish Shah, Northern District of Illinois Court.

Not to miss is Preetinder Singh "Preet" Bharara, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who is one of the most powerful US attorneys in the country now.

Among other key positions held in the administration are Kamala Vasagam, General Counsel, US Office of Personnel Management; Priya Aiyar, Deputy General Counsel, in the Department of Treasury; Kamran Khan, Vice-President for Compact Implementation, Millennium Challenge Corporation; the high profile Mythili Raman, Chief of Staff, Criminal Division, Department of Justice and Subhasri Ramanathan, Counselor to the Secretary, Department of Homeland Security.

While Daleep Singh is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Treasury for Europe & Eurasia; Vikram Singh is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security; and Kiran Ahuja, Executive Director, White House Initiative on Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPI).

"Our Nation draws its strength from the diversity of its population and from its commitment to equal opportunity for all. We are at our best when we draw on the talents of all parts of our society, and our greatest accomplishments are achieved when diverse perspectives are brought to bear to overcome our greatest challenges," Ahuja told PTI.

"That is why his administration reflects the diversity of America, and why the President is committed to building a government that represents the people it serves - not only through relevant programs and services, but also in its composition. We are proud of the inclusion of AAPIs at all levels of government, and look forward to continuing on that progress," Ahuja said.

Vikram Aiyer is Deputy Chief of Staff, US Patent and Trademark Office in the Department of Commerce; Gaurab Bansal, Deputy Chief of Staff, Export-Import Bank; Amit Bose, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Governmental Affairs, Department of Transportation; Jyoti Jasrasaria, Confidential Assistant to the Deputy US Trade Representative; Ven Neralla, Director of Congressional Affairs for Research, Education, and Economics, and National Institute of Food and Agriculture, US Department of Agriculture and Rajan Trivedi, Special Assistant to the Vice President and CEO, Millenium Challenge Corporation.

Obama Administration has the distinction of hiring the largest number of Indian Americans to his White House.

This includes Shilpa Phadke, Special Assistant to the President, Office of Cabinet Affairs; Anuj Gupta, Associate Staff Secretary, Office of the Staff Secretary; Rishi R Sahgal, Deputy Associate Counsel, Office of the White House Counsel; Shilpa Hegde, Assistant Staff Secretary, Office of the Staff Secretary; Rohan Patel, Associate Director, White House Council on Environmental Quality, and Jeremy Bernton, Outreach and Recruitment Director, Presidential Office.

Among other Indian-Americans occupying key positions are Gautam Raghavan, Advisor, White House Office of Public Engagement; Pavneet Singh, Senior Advisor and Director for International Economic Affairs, White House National Security Staff; Taara Rangarajan, Advisor to the National Security Advisor, White House National Security Staff; Puneet Talwar, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Iran, Iraq and the Gulf States.

Prem G Kumar, Senior Director for Middle East and North Africa, White House National Security Staff; Nitin K Chadda, Director for Iran Affairs, White House National Security Council and Avin Sharma, Economics Director, White House Office of Presidential Personnel also hold key positions.

"This is a record. The community owes it to Obama for recognising the talent of Indian Americans," Dr Sambhu Banik, a Bethesda psychologist, told PTI.

In 1990, he was appointed by President Ronald Regan as executive director of the President's Committee on Mental Retardation. In 1987, Regan appointed Joy Cherian to Equal Employment Opportunities Commission.

Also for the first time, Indian American Nina Davuluri, 24, was crowned with the Miss American title in 2013.

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Agencies
March 24,2020

Beijing, Mar 24:  China reported 78 new confirmed cases, including 74 imported infections, while the death toll from the novel coronavirus increased to 3,277 after seven more fatalities were confirmed from the COVID-19, health officials said on Tuesday.

The overall confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland have reached 81,171 by the end of Monday. This included 3,277 people who died of the disease, 4,735 patients who were still being treated and 73,159 patients discharged after recovery, the National Health Commission (NHC) said on Tuesday.

The NHC said, 78 new confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported on the Chinese mainland on Monday, of which 74 were imported from abroad taking the number of overseas cases to 427.

Also on Monday, seven deaths and 35 new suspected cases were reported on the mainland with all the deaths in Hubei Province.

The total COVID-19 cases in Beijing climbed to 522 with eight deaths prompting local governments of Beijing as well as Shanghai to announce that all overseas arrivals will be subjected to nucleic acid tests to ensure proper detection.

Of the 74 newly imported cases, 31 were reported in Beijing, 14 in Guangdong, nine in Shanghai, five in Fujian, four in Tianjin, three in Jiangsu, two in Zhejiang and Sichuan respectively, and one in Shanxi, Liaoning, Shandong and Chongqing respectively, the NHC said.

Beijing is already diverting all international flights to different cities where the passengers will be quarantined for 14 days before arriving in the city.

The NHC said 132 people were still suspected of being infected with the virus.

Coronavirus epicentre Wuhan has reported one confirmed case after a gap of five days prompting officials to begin to ease restrictions.

Wuhan also reported seven new deaths, bringing the total number of deaths in the city and Hubei province for which Wuhan is the capital to 3,160.

The province also saw 444 patients discharged from hospital after recovery on Monday. Among the 4,200 patients being treated in hospital, 1,203 were still in severe condition and another 336 in critical condition, the local health commission said.

By the end of Monday, 356 confirmed cases, including four deaths have been reported in Hong Kong, which has restricted the entry of foreigners into the city. Also a total of 25 confirmed cases were reported in Macao and 195 in Taiwan including two deaths, state-run Xinhua news agency reporrted.

After days of decline in coronavirus cases, China on Monday said that COVID-19 has effectively been "stemmed" in the country and it started easing severe restrictions imposed on Wuhan's 11 million people who were under lockdown since January 23.

The authorities began relaxing restrictions in Wuhan as it reported no new case for the fifth consecutive day on Monday.

Significantly, the Central Leading Group (CLP), headed by Premier Li Keqiang which is coordinating efforts to contain the virus since January 23, said the virus has been curtailed in the country as well as in Wuhan.

"The meeting noted that the spread of the virus nationwide, particularly in the epicentre of Wuhan, has been effectively stemmed," an official statement said on Monday.

The meeting, however, warned that the risks for sporadic infections and localised outbreaks have not gone away. With the pandemic rampaging across the world, the situation remains complex and challenging.

"Wuhan city and Hubei province should stay focused on medical treatment and community-level containment as the two key priorities. They should continue to treat the severe cases, promptly admit new cases, and advance epidemiological investigations," the meeting said.

In Wuhan, officials said people are allowed to go back to work while restrictions on the public transport are gradually being eased.

The Hubei province and its capital Wuhan with over 56 million people were under lockdown since January 23. The vicious virus broke out in city, reportedly at a live animal market in December last year and became virulent inflicting thousands of people in the city and province catching the government off guard.

As the country saw a surge in imported infections, the Chinese government announced that all international flights scheduled to arrive in Beijing will be redirected to airports in 12 other Chinese cities from Monday.

International passengers flying to Beijing will instead land at airports in 12 cities including Shanghai, Tianjin, Nanjing and Shenyang as their first points of entry, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said in a statement.

On Monday, China said international travellers should "think twice" about choosing Beijing for flight transfer in view of the restrictions.

Starting from Monday, all international flights scheduled to arrive in Beijing will be redirected to airports in 12 other Chinese cities, Liu Haitao, an official with China's National Immigration Administration said.

Passengers would go through entry procedures and quarantine measures at the designated cities' airports before they continue their flights to Beijing, Liu said, urging travellers to reserve enough time for their next flights to make sure that they do not miss their outbound flights.

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Agencies
August 4,2020

Washington, Aug 4: US President Donald Trump gave popular Chinese-owned video app TikTok six weeks to sell its US operations to an American company, saying Monday it would be "out of business" otherwise, and that the government wanted a financial benefit from the deal.

"It's got to be an American company... it's got to be owned here," Trump said. "We don't want to have any problem with security."

Trump said that Microsoft was in talks to buy TikTok, which has as many as one billion worldwide users who make quirky 60-second videos with its smartphone app.

But US officials say the app constitutes a national security risk because it could share millions of Americans' personal data with Chinese intelligence.

Trump gave the company's Chinese parent ByteDance until mid-September to strike a deal.

"I set a date of around September 15, at which point it's going to be out of business in the United States," he said.

Whatever the price is, he said, "the United States should get a very large percentage of that price because we're making it possible."

Trump compared the demand for a piece of the pie to a landlord demanding under-the-table "key money" from a new tenant, a practice widely illegal including in New York, where the billionaire president built his real estate empire.

"TikTok is a big success, but a big portion of it is in the country," he said. "I think it's very fair."

But Trump also threw a surprise new condition in any deal, saying the sale of TikTok's US business would have to result in a significant payout to the US Treasury for initiating it.

"A very substantial portion of that price is going to have to come into the Treasury of the United States, because we're making it possible for this deal to happen," Trump told reporters.

"They don't have any rights unless we give it to them," he said.

Sell or shut down

The pressure for a sale of TikTok's US and international business, based in Los Angeles, left the company and ByteDance facing tough decisions.

Trump has made TikTok the latest front in the ongoing political and trade battles between Washington and Beijing.

The app has been under formal investigation on US national security grounds because it collects large amounts of personal data on all its users and is legally bound to share that with authorities in Beijing if they demand it.

Both its huge user base and its algorithm for collecting data make it hugely valuable.

But being forced by the US government to sell at least its US business or be shut down -- and to then split the sale price with the US Treasury as Trump is demanding -- was an almost unheard-of tactic.

Shutting down could force users to switch to competitors, and many content creators are already encouraging followers to follow them on other social media platforms.

"The most obvious beneficiaries are Snapchat, Facebook and Twitter, with Snapchat likely being the biggest beneficiary," said investment analysts at Lightshed Partners.

Earlier Monday, ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming acknowledged the hefty pressure and said in a letter to staff, reported by Chinese media, that they were working around-the-clock "for the best outcome."

"We have always been committed to ensuring user data security, as well as the platform neutrality and transparency," Zhang said.

However, he said, the company faces "mounting complexities across the geopolitical landscape and significant external pressure."

He said the company must confront the challenge from the United States, though "without giving up exploring any possibilities."

According to Britain's The Sun newspaper Monday, as a possible consequence of the pressure, ByteDance is planning to relocate TikTok's global operations to Britain.

Pushing back

China's foreign ministry pushed back Monday, calling Washington hypocritical for demanding TikTok be sold.

"The US is using an abused concept of national security and, without providing any evidence, is making presumptions of guilt and issuing threats to relevant companies," said spokesman Wang Wenbin.

"This goes against the principle of market economy and exposes the hypocrisy and typical double standards of the US in upholding so-called fairness and freedom," he added.

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News Network
June 17,2020

Washington, Jun 17: The United States is closely monitoring the situation following a fierce clash between Indian and Chinese forces in eastern Ladakh and hopes that the differences will be resolved peacefully, officials said here.

Twenty Indian Army personnel including a colonel were killed in the clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the biggest military confrontation in over five decades that has significantly escalated the already volatile border standoff in the region.

"We are closely monitoring the situation between Indian and Chinese forces along the Line of Actual Control," a State Department spokesperson said.

"We note the Indian military has announced that 20 soldiers have died, and we offer our condolences to their families," the official said.

Both India and China have expressed their desires to de-escalate and the US supports a peaceful resolution of the current situation, the spokesperson said.

"During their phone call on June 2, 2020, President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had discussed the situation along the India-China border," the official added.

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