Obama names two Indian-Americans to his administration

Lalit K Jha
Washington, Jan 28 (PTI) US President Barack Obama has
named two Indian-Americans - Vivek Murthy and Islam Siddiqui -
for key posts in his Administration, the White House said.
Murthy has been appointed as member of the advisory
group on Prevention, Health, Promotion and Integrative and
Public Health. Siddiqui would be Obama's Chief Agricultural
Negotiator.
"Our nation will be greatly served by the talent and
expertise these individuals bring to their new roles. I am
grateful they have agreed to serve in this Administration, and
I look forward to working with them in the months and years
ahead," Obama said in a statement after announcing his
intention to appoint Murthy to the key Administration post
along with 13 others.
Murthy is an attending physician at Brigham and
Women's Hospital and an instructor at Harvard Medical School,
where he is an internal medicine hospitalist.
He is co-founder and President of Doctors for America,
a grassroots organisation of over 15,000 doctors and medical
students in 50 states who are working to build a better health
care system for all Americans.
He is also the co-founder and Chairman of Epernicus,
LLC, a privately-held company that builds social networking
platforms for scientific institutions and clinical trials.
Murthy has lectured widely on health care reform and
physician advocacy.
His writings and research have been published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Science,
the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, and The
Washington Post.
Murthy received a B A from Harvard University, an M.D.
from the Yale School of Medicine, and an M.B.A. from the Yale
School of Management.
On Wednesday, Obama also sent to the US Senate his
intent to re-nominate Siddiqui to be his Chief Agricultural
Negotiator, Office of the United States Trade Representative,
with the rank of Ambassador.
He was nominated for the first time in September last
year.