English - PRAVASI BHARATIYA - Overseas Indian

DIASPORARamakrishnan is India Abroad Person ‘09WHITE HOUSESEEKS ‘TIPS’The White House has invited top Indian-American executives to helpfind ways of cutting costs to make the US bureaucracy leanerThe White House has inviteddozens of America’s topexecutives, including Pepsico’sIndia-born chief executiveIndra K. Nooyi, seeking tips onhow the U.S. bureaucracy canbecome leaner and meaner. BesidesNooyi, Microsoft chief executiveSteve Ballmer, Craigslist founderCraig Newmark, Sprint Nextel chiefexecutive Dan Hesse, and Facebookco-founder Chris Hughes are amongthose expected to attend.The idea is to find ways to cutcosts and getting federal agenciesto place a higher priority on betterserving the public, in areas includingimmigration, education and thecensus, The Washington Postreported. White House officialshope tips from the executives mayhelp translate private sector’sentrepreneurial zeal to federal agenciesas they turn to new technologies,such as web and text messaging,to make that all happen.The Census Bureau spent $600million on a project to make its 2010count electronic, but the effortfailed and the census will be conductedby paper this year. “We seea big gap in technology from theprivate sector and the federal governmentin terms of productivityand service quality,” said JeffreyZients, the Deputy Director forManagement of the Office of Managementand Budget.Zients, federal Chief InformationOfficer Vivek Kundra and federalChief Technology Officer AneeshChopra told The Post in a groupinterview that they invited executivesfrom various industries whohave demonstrated excellence incost management, customer service,and the use of high-tech toolsto achieve those ends.One challenge facing the administrationis that federal workers aren’tAneesh Chopra Indra Nooyi Vivek Kundramotivated by the shareholder pressuresand corporate bonuses of theprivate sector. The executives willbreak out into three working groupsand then present their ideas to allattendees, including Valerie Jarrett,a senior adviser to President BarackObama, and Peter Orszag, director ofthe Office of Management and Budget,The Post said. The governmenthas started to implement some ofthe ideas. It’s cut nearly a dozeninformation technology contractsthat appeared wasteful.The U.S. Customs and ImmigrationServices is using text messagesto inform applicants for citizenshipwhen their paperwork movesthrough the seven steps of the applicationprocess.Indian-American Nobel laureateVenkatraman Ramakrishnanhas been named the IndiaAbroad Person of the Year 2009 bythe ethnic weekly newspaper.A total of nine awards were presentedin seven categories at theseventh annual India Abroad Personof the Year Awards gala onMarch 5. Prominent members of theIndian-American communityattended the event, held at theNational Museum of the AmericanIndian in the magnificent AlexanderHamilton U.S. Customs Housein New York.The first to be honoured was theIndia Abroad Young Achiever 2009,Kavya Shivashankar, winner of theScripps National Spelling Bee 2009.The India Abroad Gopal RajuAward for Community Service 2009went to the South Asian Council forSocial Services (SACSS) and itsExecutive Director Sudha Acharyafor SACSS’s long support andKAMLESHDAVE TOADVISEVIRGINIA GUV-ELECTVirginia’s Republican GovernorelectBob McDonnell hasappointed long-time fundraiserDr. Kamlesh Dave to his transitionteam for economic development.Dave, a cardiologist practising inChester, Virginia, is the first Indian-Americanto be inducted intothe governor-elect’s inner circle ofadvisers. Born and raised inAhmedabad, Dave is a leadingsocial activist. He was recentlyunanimously elected president ofthe new Republican Indian Committee,a political action body.Dave did his internship at CornellUniversity in New York andworked in Manhattan and partsof New Jersey for several years.Venkatraman Ramakrishnanempowerment of South Asianimmigrants in America.Priyamvada Natarajan, Professorof astronomy and physics at YaleUniversity, was named the IndiaAbroad Face of the Future 2009, anaward which recognises thepromise of future achievement.Mathematician Manjul Bhargava,the youngest Full Professor atPrinceton University, and the inauguralIndia Abroad Face of theFuture 2008, was also present.Investment banker SreedharMenon was awarded the IndiaAbroad Award for Lifetime Serviceto the Community 2009.The India Abroad Publisher’s SpecialAwards for Excellence werepresented to National PublicRadio’s Morning Edition ExecutiveProducer Madhulika Sikka, TheWashington Post Managing EditorRaju Narisetti, and Otterbein Collegeprofessor Abhijat Joshi, bestknown as the co-writer of Bollywoodblockbusters 3 Idiots and LageRaho Munnabhai.Pulitzer Prize-winning novelistJhumpa Lahiri’s publisher AjaiSingh ‘Sonny’ Mehta, the editor-inchiefof Alfred A Knopf, was giventhe India Abroad Award for LifetimeAchievement 2009.Poonam Alaigh is justwhat the doc prescribedNew Jersey Governor Chris Christieintroduces Poonam Alaigh.New Jersey’s RepublicanGovernor Chris Christiehas named an Indian-American doctor, Poonam Alaigh,as the commissioner of the stateHealth and Senior Services Department,a cabinet post. Alaigh, 45, hasa multifaceted background inhealth care and administration,including hospital practice, hospitaladministration, managed care,pharmaceutical medicine, andhealth care policy. “It is importantwe have a qualified team with theattitude and willingness to get towork, make tough decisions andstrive for results. These appointmentswill assure that the statusquo isn’t acceptable and the healthand education of New Jersey’s citizenswill be in the best of hands,”Governor Christie said, announcingAlaigh’s name. Alaigh said herfirst priority is to help the governorbalance the budget. Currentlydirector of Horizon Blue Cross BlueShield of New Jersey, she is alsoworking as an assistant professorin the department of family practiceat the University of Medicineand Robert Wood Johnson UniversityMedical School.26 Pravasi Bharatiya March 2010Pravasi Bharatiya March 2010 27