Biden appoints Indian Americans in key positions

US President Joe Biden on Friday (local time) announced that two more Indian Americans in key positions of additional policy staff who will serve with the White House COVID-19 Response Team, Domestic Climate Policy Office, Domestic Policy Council, and National Economic Council.

According to a White House statement, Biden nominated Chiraag Bains as Special Assistant to the President for Criminal Justice and Pronita Gupta as Special Assistant to the President for Labor and Workers.

"Chiraag Bains was recently the Director of Legal Strategies at Demos, a national public policy orgzation where he led voting rights litigation and advocacy across the country. Before that, he was a senior fellow at Harvard Law School and at the Open Society Foundations. From 2010 to 2017, Bains served in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, first as a prosecutor of civil rights crimes and then as senior counsel to the Assistant Attorney General," the White House said.

It added that Gupta was the director of job quality for the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP). Prior to joining CLASP, she served as the deputy director of the Women's Bureau in the U.S. Department of Labor under President Obama.

"She also previously served as senior director of programs for the Women Donors Network (WDN) as well as research director for Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy. Gupta also served as research director for SCOPE/AGENDA in Los Angeles, and for the Living Wage Campaign at the LA Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE)," the White House said.

According to media reports, Biden has appointed at least 55 Indian-Americans to key leadership positions in his administration ranging from his speechwriter to the NASA, to almost every wing of the government.

( With inputs from ANI )