As India celebrates its Independence Day, wishes are pouring in not just from across the world but space a well. Indian-American astronaut Raja Chari greeted the people of the country by posting a photo of the Indian national flag at the International Space Station (ISS) with a message for Indians living abroad. The photo also shows Earth in the background. Mr Chari recently returned home after a six-month mission at the ISS. He was among the four astronauts aboard a Space X spacecraft which safely splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico, in the month of May.

“On Indian Independence eve I’m reminded of Indian diaspora that I could see from @Space_Station where my immigrant father’s home town of Hyderabad shines bright. @nasa is just 1 place Indian Americans make a difference every day. Looking forward to @IndianEmbassyUS celebration,” Mr Chari said in his tweet.

Mr Chari, who works for American space agency NASA, was picked to be an astronaut in 2017. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US, and grew up in Cedar Falls, Iowa. He is married to Cedar Falls native Holly Schaffter Chari, with whom he has three children.

According to Chari’s biography on the NASA website, he graduated from Columbus High School in Waterloo, Iowa. From the US Air Force Academy in Colorado, he received a bachelor’s degree in Astronautical Engineering. He was awarded a master’s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Chari’s grandfather, a resident of Mahabubnagar in Telangana, was a Mathematics professor at Osmania University, Hyderabad. His father, Sreenivas Chari, had studied engineering at the same university and later moved to the US. The astronaut has visited Hyderabad a few times, where his relatives live.

India is celebrating ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’, marking 75 years of its Independence.

This day commemorates India’s independence from the British rule. The celebration of Independence Day honours the sacrifices and tireless efforts of our courageous leaders and freedom fighters who gave their entire life for the sake of the nation and the countrymen.

An Indian American journalist, Uma Pemmaraju has passed away at the age of 64. She was a part of various shows such as The Fox Report, Fox News Live, Fox News Now, and Fox On Trends. She has been awarded many Emmy Awards in her career for investigative reporting and journalism.

Pemmaraju paved the way for Indian American journalists in the field of investigative reporting by receiving many Emmy Awards over the span of her career. The Big Sisters Organization of America awarded her The Woman of Achievement Award. She also won the Texas AP Award and the Matrix Award from the Women in Communications for reporting. She was also featured as one of Spotlight Magazine’s “20 Intriguing Women of 1998.”

For the second year in a row, Reunion Tower is being lit with the colors of India as the country celebrates the completion of 75 years of independence.

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson’s plan for a global city and economy was on display when he declared Aug. 15 as Indian-American Day.

“America… this is our home. But, it also recognizes our heritage,” Sanjiv Yajnik, the president of financial services at Capital One, said. “We come from India, and we are proud of our heritage.”

Yajnik is proud to be a first-generation immigrant whose kids were born in the United States. Arun Agarwal, the CEO of Nextt, is also a first-generation immigrant with kids born in the U.S.

They both want it to be known that they are not alone in their success stories.

“I think there are around 220,000 Indian-Americans in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex,” Agarwal explained. “That is around two and a half percent, but the Indian-America community owns around five and a half percent of business. That brings direct revenue of 10 billion dollars.”

The two business leaders are most proud of co-founding the Indian-American CEO Council that allows them to highlight the vast achievements of other Indian-Americans in North Texas.

“We are a minority community… and minority communities in general face some uphill battles. We want to be a positive force in trying to alleviate some of that,” Sanjiv said.

It’s a responsibility that goes beyond their 11 member council and that will continue making North Texas one of the most diverse and well-rounded areas in the country.

“Let us be responsible to give back. If you elevate each other, everyone will be elevated,” Agarwal said.

According to the World Health Organization, tuberculosis is the 13the leading cause of death globally and the 2nd leading infectious killer after COVID-19, (more than HIV/AIDS). In 2020, 1.5 million people died of TB, and 10 million people fell ill worldwide that year. But TB is curable and preventable.

India is the leading country among the top 8 countries which account for two-thirds of the total. It is followed by China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and South Africa.

India has incorporated strategies to achieve TB elimination in its National Health Policy and its goal is to reduce new cases and eliminate it by 2025, notes the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, AAPI, which announced Aug. 9, 2022, that it is collaborating in India’s TB Notifications Campaign.

Covid has had a devastating impact on the TB Free efforts for India, notes the press AAPI press release. Most significantly, TB notifications have been reduced by 30%-50% in the initial stage of the pandemic and failed to reach the 2.4 million annual TB notification target for 2021. There is an urgent need to boost TB Notification, especially post-Covid.

“There is no instant solution for India’s myriad problems. But by collaborating with the governments both nationally and at state levels, and working with the government and NGOs, physicians of Indian origin can make a huge difference,” Dr. Ravi Kolli, president, of AAPI is quoted saying in the press release.

Dr. Kolli was part of the recent closing ceremony of BOOSTING THE TB NOTIFICATION (BTN) CAMPAIGN, a training and certification program of DTO (District TB Officers) in India attended by almost 370 DTOS and STO (State TB Officer), organized by Drs. Manoj Jain and Salil Bhargava, co-founders of CETI (Collaboration to Eliminate TB in Indians), supported by USAID, Emory University and U.S. Centers for Disease Control, etc.

According to Dr. Jain, DTOs in India have initiated a TB Notification Campaign using the PDSA quality improvement process guided by CETI (Collaboration to Eliminate TB among Indians) and Emory University. The objectives are to increase notification for TB by 10% over the course of a year by implementing the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) -Quality Improvement Initiative (QII); Engage more than 500 DTOs covering all the districts in a virtual 8 week session for 1.5 hours each week; and, provide certificates of completion from Emory University, Central TB Division, WHO, IIPH and CETI to successful DTOs.

Dr. Jain, who has been part of this initiative of AAPI since its launch, shared the progress achieved, with other leaders in AAPI.

“AAPI in its unique way has made immense contributions to helping our motherland during the crisis and played a significant role in saving lives,” Dr. Kolli noted, expressing full support from the organization to the initiative.

Micron Technology, an industry leader in innovative memory and storage solutions, headed by Indian-American CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, is all set to announce a whopping investment of USD 40 billion in memory chips manufacturing in the US, as President Joe Biden is set to sign the ambitious CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 at the White House on Tuesday.

Mehrotra along with several other leaders of the American corporate sector like Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel; Jim Taiclet, the CEO of Lockheed Martin; Enrique Lores, the CEO of HP; and Dr. Lisa Su, the Chair and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices are expected to attend the bill signing at the White House to mark the historic event.

The bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 will strengthen American manufacturing, supply chains, as well as national security, and invest in research and development, science and technology, and the workforce of the future to keep the US the leader in the industries of tomorrow, including nano-technology, clean energy, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence, according to the White House.

Ahead of the bill signing ceremony, the White House said Micron was announcing a USD 40 billion investment in memory chip manufacturing that is critical for computers and electronic devices and will create up to 8,000 new jobs.

This investment alone will bring the US market share of memory chip production from two per cent to 10 per cent.

Qualcomm and GlobalFoundries are announcing a new partnership of USD 4.2 billion to manufacture chips in an expansion of GlobalFoundries’ upstate New York facility.

Qualcomm, the leading fabless semiconductor company in the world, has announced plans to increase semiconductor production in the US by 50 per cent over the next five years, the White House said.

The US Senate on July 28 this year passed the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) Act that authorises more than USD 200 billion in federal funding to promote domestic semiconductor production.

The legislation also directs Congress to significantly increase spending on high-tech research programs that lawmakers say will help the country stay economically competitive in the decades ahead.

The CHIPS and Science Act provides USD 52.7 billion for American semiconductor research, development, manufacturing, and workforce development. This includes USD 39 billion in manufacturing incentives, including USD 2 billion for the legacy chips used in automobiles and defence systems, USD 13.2 billion in Research and Development and workforce development, and USD 500 million to provide for international information communications technology security and semiconductor supply chain activities.

It also provides a 25 per cent investment tax credit for capital expenses for manufacturing of semiconductors and related equipment. These incentives will secure domestic supply, create tens of thousands of good-paying, union construction jobs, thousands more high-skilled manufacturing jobs, and catalyse hundreds of billions more in private investment, the White House said.

The CHIPS and Science Act will establish a technology, innovation, and partnerships directorate at the National Science Foundation (NSF) to focus on fields like semiconductors and advanced computing, advanced communications technology, advanced energy technologies, quantum information technologies, and biotechnology.

It will strengthen commercialisation of research and technology, ensuring that what is invented in America is made in America. The Act will also reauthorise and expand fundamental and use-inspired research at the Department of Energy Office of Science and the National Institute of Standards and Technology to sustain US leadership in the sciences and engineering as the engine for American innovation, said the White House.