Washington, April 18
President Barack Obama has formed a three-man team, including two Indian Americans, to help break Washington’s “bad habits” of wasteful spending and move recession-hit America from recovery to prosperity. “If we’re to going to rebuild our economy on a solid foundation, we need to change the way we do business in Washington,” Obama said in his weekly address Saturday.
Announcing the appointment of Indian American Aneesh Chopra, currently Virginia’s secretary of technology, to serve as the chief technology officer, Obama said: “Aneesh will promote technological innovation to help achieve our most urgent priorities - from creating jobs and reducing health care costs to keeping our nation secure.”
Chopra presently leads Virginia's strategy to effectively leverage technology in government reform, to promote the state’s innovation agenda, and to foster technology-related economic development.
Chopra and Jeffrey Zients, a CEO, management consultant and entrepreneur, who was named as the chief performance officer, will work with another Indian American, Vivek Kundra, to help give “Americans a government that is effective, efficient and transparent”.
“Aneesh and Jeffrey will work closely with our chief information officer Vivek Kundra, who is responsible for setting technology policy across the government, and using technology to improve security, ensure transparency and lower costs,” he said.
Announcing plans to eliminate dozens of government programmes shown to be wasteful or ineffective, the President said: “In this effort, there will be no sacred cows and no pet projects. All across America, families are making hard choices and it's time their government did the same. That is why I have assembled a team of management, technology, and budget experts to guide us in this work.”
— IANS
