There has been overwhelming elation from across United States from Indian American community leaders and activists over the decision by the government of India to appoint Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao as the new Indian Ambassador to the US, to succeed Meera Shankar whose term ends on July 31 after which she is expected to go into retirement from the Indian Foreign Service.
Senior diplomatic sources, while conceding that there have been regular discussions of the Sri Lanka situation between Delhi and Washington, and that both countries were on the same page in terms of its policy regarding the repatriation of Tamil refugees and that the rights of the Tamil minority needs to be respected, reiterated that this issue would not figure in the discussion Clinton has while in Chennai
Richard Fontaine, director of the Task Force convened by the Centre for New American Security, fears that India's abstentions of key votes at the United Nations Security Council and a divide on the issue of Iran when it does come up may dissipate Washington's enthusiasm to push for India's bid for a permanent seat.
Two key Indian American physicians from the Obama administration, who worked on implementing healthcare reforms, are stepping down from their posts to return to clinical practice. Dr Sachin H Jain, 30, and Amol S Navathe, 32, worked for the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
Indian American Dr George Thomas, the erstwhile president of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, has been elected chairman of the Florida Board of Medicine, thus becoming the third Indian American physician to head this influential organisation in the American state.
Considered the pioneer of echocardiography in the world, Nanda explained that "Maharlika in the Filipino idiom connotes nobility or royalty -- as someone who has become the respected leader of a clan or tribe reverentially referred to as the Datu or Sultan."
Although neither the US Army nor the US department of defense has officially made public her appointment, Stars and Stripes, a Washington, DC-based newspaper that reports exclusively on the Pentagon, said the appointment was a done deal and that Hindu service-members would now have their own chaplain
The United States on Thursday said that it is not trying to 'hold China down,' despite crucial differences over issues like supplying arms to Taiwan and was trying to 'manage' differences with the 'global power.'
Speaking at a hearing of the Foreign Relations Committee, Maryland Democrat Ben Cardin, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said: "There are mixed signals here that are very, very troubling and that the United States needs to be able to have alternatives for carrying out its foreign policy in that region."
Christine Fair, an expert on Pakistan-based Jihadi groups, has predicted that even if there is an India-Pakistan rapprochement and a resolution of the Kashmir imbroglio, it will not result in Pakistan reining in these strategic assets that are invaluable to it to wage it proxy wars against India.
The Indian American Republican Governor of South Carolina Nimrata 'Nikki' Randhawa Haley has said that she's not interested in being the vice presidential candidate of the Republican presidential nominee in 2012.
Soon after Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta provided a classified briefing to the House leadership in the US Congress on the covert mission inside Pakistan that killed Al Qaeda head Osama bin Laden, he was peppered with a volley of questions. He was quizzed about Pakistani duplicity, particularly the Inter-Services Intelligence's perfidy about how it could have not known about bin Laden living right under their nose in Abbottabad.
While Obama administration officials and representatives of US industry strongly expressed their angst over India's rejection of the American fighter aircraft but did not want to be quoted by name, leading South Asia policy wonks in Washington had no such compunctions in interviews with rediff.com.
United States Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert O Blake, the Obama administration's point man for the subcontinent, still can't get over the Bharatiya Janata Party's opposition to the US-India civilian nuclear deal, despite the fact that it initiated and championed this accord during the time it was in power.
The Obama administration has rationalised India's abstention on the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 last month, calling for a no-fly zone in strife-torn Libya, as based on part misinformation and part going along with its Brazil, Russia, and China partners.
Indian Defence Minister A K Antony is 'very suspicious of the private sector', leading Indian business baron Jamshyd N Godrej has said.
Former Indian Ambassador to the United States Ronen Sen has asserted that any denial of a level playing field to United States industry and business -- that lobbied feverishly for the US-India civilian nuclear deal -- in the wake of the Nuclear Liability Bill passed by the Indian parliament would be 'worse than a breach of faith'.
Rahul 'Richard' Verma has become the second high-ranking Indian-American official in the Obama administration to resign and return to the private sector.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accorded Richard Verma a rousing farewell at the State Department's ornate Thomas Jefferson Room. He exited after more than two years of serving as her principal Congressional affairs advisor in his capacity of assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs.
Two young South Asian Americansan Indian American and a Pakistani Americanwho are rising stars in the United States strategic affairs community, were the featured panelists on the discussion of Nuclear Risk Reduction in South Asia after Mumbai at the 2011 Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference in Washington, DC at the Ronald Reagan Building Convention Center.