20 US-Indians in Biden review teams

Washington, November 11

US President-elect Joe Biden has named more than 20 Indian-Americans as members, including three as team leads, to his agency review teams (ARTs). They would be responsible for evaluating the operations of the key federal agencies in the current administration to ensure smooth transfer of power.

Patel Chief of Staff to Acting Defence Secy

Washington: Indian-American Kash Patel has been named the Chief of Staff to the Acting US Defence Secretary Chris Miller, the Pentagon has announced. The new appointment from the Pentagon comes after Trump fired Defence Secretary Mark Esper. PTI

Biden’s transition team said it was one of the most diverse agency review teams in the presidential transition history.

At least three Indian-Americans have been named leads to various ARTs.

Arun Majumdar from the prestigious Stanford University is the team leader for the Department of Energy ART. Rahul Gupta is the team lead for the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Kiran Ahuja has been named team lead for the Office of Personnel Management and Puneet Talwar to the Department of State ART. Pav Singh has been named to two ARTs for National Security Council and Office of Science and Technology. Similarly, Arun Venkatraman will lead two ARTs Department of Commerce and USTR.

Others are Pravina Raghavan, Atman Trivedi for Department of Commerce and Shital Shah for the Department of Education; R Ramesh and Rama Zakaria for the Department of Energy; Subhasri Ramanathan for the Department of Homeland Security; Raj De for Department of Justice; and Seema Nanda and Raj Nayak for Department of Labour. — PTI