All posts by Pushpesh Garikpati

Pushpesh Garikpati holds a masters degree in International Business and Management from De Montfort University, UK and a Bachelors degree in commerce from Symbiosis International University, India. He has authored many research publications at national and international level.

Taking Strides towards a strategic bilateral alliance between US and India

Nisha Biswal’s emergence on the political scenario has provided the much needed fillip to the Indian- American political dream. Her nomination as Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, which was personally recommended by President Barack Obama, brought cheers to the overall Indian- American community.

front-_IAL8236Ms Biswal is part of the Indian American community. Having roots to India, she is in a good position to understand the perception about USA in India and among Indian Americans. Indian Ameircans expect her to take a positive stand towards deepening Indo- US ties and her visit to India recently is considered a step in that direction. It is good to note that Assistant Secretary Biswal is reaching out to India Americans, taking their views and is willing to work closely to strengthen US-India relationship. USINPAC has supported these efforts in past and will always extend further support.

Earlier this year, as she arrived in Bangalore, Ms Biswal announced that the United States Agency for International Aid (USAID) will provide $2.7 million for increasing clean energy access to India. Supporting this she opined that, “I am pleased to be here to highlight this latest addition to the constellation of amazing cooperative opportunities between the United States and India to expand access to clean energy.” During her stay, Ms Biswal also met High Indian officials in order to discuss the entire spectrum of bilateral and regional issues, including shared defense, security and economic engagement across Indo- Pacific corridor.

Her visit, which Washington had expected would to some extent mend frayed ties with India, came at a time when the Indo-US relationship has suffered setbacks, including on issues of trade and the Khobragade stand-off. It’s the time of engagement where ideas need to be transcribed and translated and Ms Biswal believes establishing bilateral strategic partnership would go a long way in stabilizing the bond between the two nations.

After completing her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia, Ms Biswal also worked at InterAction, the largest alliance of U.S.-based international humanitarian and development nongovernmental organizations, where she was the Director of Public Policy; and at the American Red Cross, where she served as an international delegate in Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. But it was at U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) where her political career flourished. It was at USAID wherein she got the opportunity to work at the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance and the Office of Transition Initiatives, and served as chief of staff in the Management bureau besides working with the USAID Administrator. But what brought her to the political limelight was her tenure as the majority clerk for the House Appropriations Committee Foreign Operations Subcommittee (HACFO) and as professional staff in the House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC), where she was responsible for South Asia.

Role of Indian-Americans in strengthening the American Economy

Indian- Americans account for just about 1 percent of the total American population but when it comes to their contribution,  they have pole-vaulted to an excessively prominent position in American medicine, academia, corporate and particularly the high-tech domain.

The reason for this can be attributed to the number of highly qualified Indian-Americans who hail from the most renowned engineering institute in India, Indian Institute of Technology.
The rise of Indian American community in technology driven businesses in the US has played a vital role in the overall growth of the economy. Notably there are 3.2 million Indian Americans in the US out of which 72% graduated with a bachelor’s degree or higher. Researches have unveiled that Indian- Americans start more companies than any other immigrant group. In New Jersey stats were reported to be 57%, followed by 28% in Massachusetts and 26 % in California. In addition to that, New York was accounted to hold 27% along with Florida and Texas each accounting to 17%.
Picture for the BlogIndian “tech pioneers” such as Vinod Dham, who mastered in manufacturing breakthrough technologies such as the Pentium chip and entrepreneurs like Kanwal Rekhi and Vinod Khosla, who founded Excelan and Sun Microsystems, have created foot prints for others to follow on their tread mill.
Significantly, 9 companies on the fortune 500 list have Indian- American CEOs whereas 66% Indian- Americans are employed in professional/ managerial specialties. Besides that, the most astounding news revealed was that 33% of all Silicon Valley start ups have been founded by Indian- Americans.

Nadella  who recently became the CEO of Microsoft joins a select circle of other Indian leaders of major global corporations, including Indra Nooyi, chairman and chief executive officer of PepsiCo, Ajay Banga, the chief of MasterCard and Anshu Jain, the co-CEO of Deutsche Bank .
Other Indian CEOs of major U.S. companies include Francisco D’Souza of Cognizant Technology Solutions, Sanjay Mehrotra of SanDisk, Ravichandra Saligram of OfficeMax, Dinesh C. Paliwal of Harman International Industries and Shantanu Narayen of Adobe Systems.

Supporting this stance, Richard Herman, co-author of a book entitled “U.S., Immigrant Inc.,” to Forbes, mentioned that, “It’s not a surprise that we’re seeing Indians rise in corporate ranks. Of all the immigrant groups coming in today, Indians are head-and-shoulders above others, and this is partly because of their English-language skills and also the advanced education that many of them are bringing to the U.S.”

In my opinion, the significance of the contribution of Indian-Americans has played a central aspect of identity in terms of growth of the American economy. In years to come, the demographics would increase radically making both the nations share an unprecedented bonhomie.