Shohini Sinha, an Indian-American, known for her work on counter-terrorism investigations, has been named the special agent in charge of the FBI’s field office in Salt Lake City in the US state of Utah.

Sinha, who most recently served as executive special assistant to the Director at FBI Headquarters in Washington DC was named the special agent in charge by FBI Director Christopher Wray, who highlighted Sinha’s exceptional track record on counter-terrorism investigations and extensive experience within the agency.

Having joined the FBI as a special agent back in 2001, Sinha has had a remarkable career, the release said on Monday.

Her journey began at the Milwaukee Field Office, where she dedicated her efforts to counterterrorism investigations.

Demonstrating her versatility and commitment, she also embarked on several temporary assignments, including stints at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, the FBI Legal Attaché Office in London, and the Baghdad Operations Centre, it said.

In recognition of her outstanding performance, Sinha earned a promotion to supervisory special agent in 2009 and was transferred to the Counterterrorism Division in Washington, DC.

There, she took on the role of programme manager for Canada-based extraterritorial investigations, fostering collaboration with Canadian liaison officers based in Washington, DC.

In 2012, Sinha achieved another milestone as she was promoted to assistant legal attaché in Ottawa, Canada.

Her work in this capacity revolved around tackling counterterrorism matters through close cooperation with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Continuing her upward trajectory, she was promoted to field supervisor in the Detroit Field Office in 2015. In this role, she effectively led squads responsible for investigating complex international terrorism cases.

Demonstrating her adaptability and a keen interest in cutting-edge matters, Sinha made a strategic move to the cyber intrusion squad in early 2020.

There, she tackled both national security and criminal cyber intrusion cases, displaying her expertise in this rapidly evolving domain.

Later that year, she received yet another promotion, this time to assistant special agent in charge for national security matters in the Portland Field Office, further solidifying her reputation as a seasoned professional, it said.

In 2021, Sinha’s exceptional performance and leadership qualities were recognised once again when she was chosen to serve as the executive special assistant to the FBI Director in Washington, DC.

In this pivotal role, she played an instrumental part in various high-level initiatives, making a positive impact on the agency’s operations.

Prior to joining the FBI, Sinha had pursued a different path, working as a therapist and later as an administrator for a private, not-for-profit clinic in Lafayette, Indiana.

Her passion for helping others, coupled with her strong educational background—a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in mental health counselling from Purdue University in Indiana—has undoubtedly contributed to her success in both the fields of counselling and law enforcement, the release added.

Indian-American US Ambassador-at-Large: Geeta Rao Gupta, the US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues is on a week-long visit to India. The purpose of her visit is to highlight and advance the American government’s gender equality policy priorities in the region and around the world.

Geeta Rao Gupta started her visit on Tuesday and is presently in Gujarat where she is leading the US delegation to the G20 Alliance for the Empowerment and Progression of Women’s Economic Representation (G20 EMPOWER) Conference.

She is also scheduled to attend the G20 Ministerial Conference on Women’s Empowerment, said a State Department press release.

She will travel to Mumbai on Saturday to meet members of the private sector and civil society to discuss gender equality priorities in India. This will include advancing women’s economic security by dismantling systemic barriers to women’s equitable participation in the economy, closing the gender digital divide, and preventing and responding to gender-based violence.

Gupta, along with Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Nancy Izzo Jackson, will also travel to Bengaluru to deliver keynote remarks at the WEConnect International Asia Pacific Conference on August 7.

The Mumbai-born diplomat will also engage with women leaders and civil society organizations in efforts to promote the rights and empowerment of women in India.

Special Assistant to the President at the White House Gender Policy Council Rachel Vogelstein; Consul General Mike Hankey; and USAID Senior Coordinator for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Jamille Bigio are also a part of US delegation to India.

Gupta was sworn-in as the Ambassador-at-Large for the Office of Global Women’s Issues in the State Department last month, becoming the first woman of colour to hold the position.

According to Gupta, women are unable to participate fully in the economy as there are many inequalities and indignities holding them back.

Washington, Scientist and entrepreneur, Shiva Ayyadurai has become the fourth Indian-American to announce his bid as an independent candidate for the 2024 US presidential election.

Announcing his campaign bid recently, the 59-year-old Mumbai-born said he wants to serve America, beyond “Left” and “Right” to deliver solutions people need and deserve.

“I am running for President of the United States of America. We stand at the crossroads where we can either head into a Golden Age or into the Darkness… America becomes great when innovators, entrepreneurs, working people with skills and those committed to using common sense and reason run this country,” Ayyadurai said.

In his campaign bid, he said that the old guard of career politicians, political hacks, lawyer-lobbyists and academics who pervade the country and local government with corruption and crony capitalism stop America from becoming great.

Ayyadurai left India in 1970 and came to live the American dream along with his parents and settled in Paterson, New Jersey.
“I left the caste system of India in 1970 where we were considered low caste ‘Untouchables’ and ‘Deplorables’,” he said on his campaign website.

Ayyadurai’s announcement comes closely after Indian-American aerospace engineer Hirsh Vardhan Singh threw his hat in the ring for the Republican nomination after former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

A Fulbright Scholar with four degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ayyadurai had expressed interest in taking up the position of Twitter’s chief executive officer last year.

According to his campaign website, he has started seven hi-tech companies including EchoMail, CytoSolve and Systems Health and “invented email” when he was just 14-years-old.

He is currently the Founder and CEO of CytoSolve, Inc, which is discovering cures for major diseases from pancreatic cancer to Alzheimer’s.

Indian-American engineer, who was working with a missile defence contractor in the US state of Alabama, was fired from his job over speaking to his dying relative in India in Hindi. The 78-year-old engineer has been identified as Anil Varshney and he has filed a lawsuit against his former employer, AL.com, a digital news outlet, reported.

Varshney, who was fired last year, filed a lawsuit against Huntsville-based defence contractor Parsons Corporation for “systematic discriminatory actions”, the report added.

As per the lawsuit, Varshney, a senior systems engineer, had received a video call from his dying brother-in-law KC Gupta in India. His brother-in-law called him to say goodbye as he was on his deathbed. Varshney entered an empty cubicle and accepted the call thinking that he might never have the opportunity to talk to his brother-in-law, the report mentioned.

The lawsuit stated that Varshney ensured that there were no classified materials or any material pertaining to the work of Parsons Corporation. Varshney was interrupted by a co-worker, who asked him whether he was on a video call. He immediately hung up as soon as the worker told him that call was not allowed.

In his lawsuit, Varsney pleaded that the co-worker “falsely and intentionally” reported that an Indian-American engineer had committed a “security violation by revealing confidential information and/or accepting this call during a confidential meeting or with confidential information in the background”.

The lawsuit mentioned that the co-worker felt intimidated as Varshney spoke in a foreign language.

Despite there being no policy prohibiting the call, Varshney was accused of a serious security violation and was fired from the job. He was blacklisted from future Missile Defense Agency work, effectively ending his career.

The suit further stated that Parsons’ supervisor and MDA security personnel asked him to pack his personal belongings, and searched through every file in his cubicle and through his personal belongings.

The suit added that Varshney was humiliated and that the defendants were wrongly accusing him of being a spy for speaking in a foreign language to a family member who was on a deathbed.

Varshney settled in Huntsville in 1968 along with his wife who has worked in NASA since 1989.

By way of the suit, the Indian-American engineer demanded the reinstatement of the position “comparable to his formal position”. He further pleaded for the reinstatement of privileges, and the revocation (or removal) of any disciplinary records in his file.