The US Senate has confirmed Indian-American woman administrator Nisha Desai Biswal as the assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, making her the first person from the community to hold the top diplomatic position.

Biswal, who is currently the assistant administrator for Asia at the US Agency for International Development ( USAID), will replace incumbent Robert Blake to head the key bureau in the state department.

President Barack Obama had nominated her for this top position on July 18.

The Senate foreign relations committee had held her confirmation hearing last month, during which she received bipartisan support and was praised by lawmakers from both the parties.

“I consider you another compelling argument for comprehensive immigration reform,” said Senator John McCain of the Republican Party.

“Despite your misguided political affiliation, I would like to say that you’re a great example to all of us of people who come to this country. I know you were very young … and the opportunities that this country provides,” McCain said in praise of Biswal, who is from the Democratic Party.

McCain who lost out to Obama in the 2008 presidential elections rarely praises someone from the Democratic Party.

From 2005 to 2010, she was the majority clerk for the state department and foreign operations subcommittee on the Committee on appropriations in the US House of Representatives. From 2002 to 2005, she served as the Policy and advocacy director at interaction.

Previously, she served on the professional staff of the US House of Representatives international relations committee from 1999 to 2002.

Daughter of first generation Indian Americans, Biswal draws her inspiration from her parents’ story of journey far from rural India to pursue the American Dream and a better life for their children, which she told lawmakers during the confirmation hearing of her current position on July 21, 2010.

Source: Times of India

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has formally nominated an Indian American Sikh lawyer Gurbir Grewal to be the next Bergen county prosecutor.

If confirmed by the State Senate, Grewal would become the first Indian American prosecutor in New Jersey, as well as the first person of Sikh origin to occupy the office.

Since 2010, Grewal has worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark as the Deputy Chief of the Economic Crimes Unit and Computer Hacking and IP Crimes Unit.

He previously worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York as an Assistant U.S. Attorney at the Business and Securities Fraud Unit.

“With his experience as a federal prosecutor in New Jersey and New York, Mr. Grewal has the right credentials and background to be the chief law enforcement officer for Bergen County,” said Christie announcing his intent to nominate Grewal.

“He also brings diversity to a highly diverse county, which will serve him and the community well,” Christie added.

Grewal would replace retiring prosecutor John Molinelli.

Grewal earned his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University, and holds a Juris Doctorate from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law from the College of William & Mary.

He is a past president of the South Asian Bar Association of New York, and a member of the New Jersey Asian Pacific American Lawyers Association.

Source: Business Standard

Indian-American Arun M Kumar has been nominated by President Barack Obama to a key administration post, making him in charge of international trade at a critical juncture, when the U.S. is looking to increase it’s export.

Arun M Kumar, till recently a partner and member of the Board of Directors at consultancy firm KPMG, was nominated yeasterday, by Obama to be the Assistant Secretary and Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service, International Trade Administration in the Department of Commerce.

“The extraordinary dedication these men and women bring to their new roles will greatly serve the American people,” Obama said as he announced nomination to several other key administration positions.

“I am grateful they have agreed to serve in this Administration and I look forward to working with them in the months and years to come,” he said.

Kumar joined KPMG in 1995 as a Finance Management Leader. and from 2005 until his retirement in September 2013, he led the firm’s West Coast Finance Management Consulting practice.

He also led the firm’s US-India practice from 2007 to 2013.

Kumar received a Bachelors degree in Physics from the University of Kerala in India, and an S M in Management from the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.

From 1993 to 1995, he was the founder and CEO of Planning & Logic, Inc, a software company. Prior to that, he was co-founder and CFO of Netlabs, Inc from 1991 to 1993; the CFO of Elite Microelectronics, Inc from 1990 to 1991.He also held important positions in several organisations from 1980 to 1990.

Source: Business Standard

A delegation of 16 city-based businessmen, mainly from the auto ancillary industry, will be on a trip to the United States from October 8 to 18 to explore opportunities arising from the prevailing economic conditions in the country.

“The delegation comprises businessmen who have been in the auto ancillary industry for the past 10 to 30 years. The automobile industry in the United States is very sophisticated and we are visiting Detroit with a purpose. The conditions in that country could create opportunities for the founding and casting industry in Kolhapur,” Birnale said.

The delegation will be meeting with industrialists in the U.S. especially in the automobile sector. It has received confirmation about the meetings that will be held from the Indo-American Chamber Of Commerce, the Queens Chamber of Commerce, the USA Chamber of Commerce, the USA-India business council and the USA commerce department.

“We are optimistic about that our trip there will translate into business for Kolhapur. The Indian consulate in New York has helped the delegation to reach proper institutions in the US,” said Kulbhushan Birnale, the president of Converse International Network, the organization facilitating the study tour.

Converse International Network is a joint venture between the Global Organization for People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) and the Dnyaneshwar Mulay Education Society (DMES). Mulay is currently the consul general of India in New York.

At Albany in New York, the city businessmen will be meeting their counterparts in the casting industry and will hold dialogue with the Empire State Development Corporation, New York’s major economic development agency. The delegation will also be visiting tool and dye companies in three states in the US.

“Many such visits have been planned that will give local business houses a view of how the U.S. industry is shaped and what opportunities there are. GOPIO will be welcoming the delegation and arrange a meeting at Washington Chamber of Commerce,” Birnale added.

Kolhapur is one of the top Indian cities the foundry and casting industries. Around 350 founding units have been established here in the past five decades. These industries are presently facing the heat of the international economic slowdown and are looking for global opportunities.

Source: Times of India

Rajiv Joseph, the Pulitzer Prize-nominated Indian American playwright, has been named a winner of the 6th Annual Steinberg Playwright Award, an annual theater honor organized by the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.
He shares the honor with playwright Annie Baker and will accept a cash prize of $50,000.
Joseph was awarded for his latest work, “The Lake Effect,” which had its world premiere at Chicago’s Silk Road Rising in April. “The Lake Effect” is about two estranged Indian American siblings (played by Adam Poss and Minita Gandhi) who are forced to reunite when their father passes away and his newly revealed secrets change their perception of a man they thought they knew. “The Lake Effect” is also nominated for The Chicago-based 2012-13 Jeff Equity Awards, it was announced Oct. 3.

Previously, Joseph held the world premiere of the suspenseful drama “The North Pool” in 2011 in Palo Alto, Calif. His other works include “Huck and Holden,” “Animals Out of Paper” and “Gruesome Playground Injuries.” India-West has reported previously that Joseph’s first screenplay, a football-themed film titled “Draft Day,” had been selected for Hollywood’s prestigious “Blacklist” in December 2012.

Joseph, born in Cleveland, Ohio, is the son of a French-German mother and Indian father who credits his three years spent with the Peace Corps in Senegal for having a profound effect on him and preparing him for a writing career. He earned a B.A. in creative writing from the Oxford, Ohio campus of Miami University and a master’s degree in writing from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.

Joseph is best known for his incendiary drama “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2010. “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” was first presented at the Kirk Douglas Theatre and the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles before opening on Broadway with Robin Williams in 2011.

The play will open Oct. 5 at the San Francisco Playhouse and will run through Nov. 14, directed by Bill English.

Source: IndiaWest