The India expert normally doesn’t write about Indian-Americans. Our focus is looking at India from the outside and helping the world deal with India. But President Barack Obama has taken three significant actions to re-inforce one of the (positive) stereotypes of Indian Americans and I must comment on this new trend.
First, Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN was under very serious consideration for Surgeon General of the United States. While this did not mature into an appointment, it was affirmation of the growing intellectual influence of people of Indian origin.
Then the President chose 34-year old Indian-born Vivek Kundra as his Chief Information Officer (CIO). A native of New Delhi, Kundra spent many of his formative years in Tanzania before graduating from the University of Virginia with a bachelor’s and the University of Maryland with a Master’s in Information Technology. Kundra was the Chief Technology Officer for the District of Columbia.
Earlier today, Obama announced the appointment of another person of Indian origin. This time it is 36-year-old Aneesh Paul Chopra as the first Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the United States. Silicon Valley icon Tim O’Reilly is already raving about this, despite the fact that Chopra is not a valley insider ( another Indian American, Padmasree Warrior of Cisco was reported to be in the running some time ago). Chopra has a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government graduated and a B.A. from The Johns Hopkins University in 1994. He was the Secretary of Technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia prior to this appointment.
Watch out DC, the Indians are coming.
