The United States Senate has confirmed Indian-American Ravi Chaudhary as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Air Force, one of the top civilian leadership positions in the Pentagon.

The Senate on Wednesday voted 65-29 to confirm the former Air Force officer’s nomination with more than a dozen votes being cast by the opposition Republican Party.

Chaudhary previously served as a Senior Executive at the US Department of Transportation where he was Director of Advanced Programs and Innovation, Office of Commercial Space at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

He was responsible for the execution of advanced development and research programs in support of the FAA’s commercial space transportation mission. While at the transportation department, he also served as the executive director of the regions and centre operations, where he looked over the integration and support of aviation operations in nine regions.

During his service in the US Air Force from 1993 to 2015, Chaudhary completed a variety of operational, engineering, and senior staff assignments. As a C-17 pilot, he conducted global flight operations, including numerous combat missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as ground deployment as the director of the personnel recovery centre at multinational corps in Iraq.

As a flight test engineer, he was responsible for flight certification of military avionics and hardware for the force’s modernisation programs supporting flight safety.

Earlier in his career, he supported space launch operations for the Global Positioning System (GPS) and led third-stage and flight safety activities to ensure the full operational capability of the first GPS constellation.

As a systems engineer, Chaudhary supported NASA’s International Space Station protection activities to ensure the safety of NASA Astronauts. He also served as a member of the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders during the Obama Administration. In this role, he advised the president on executive branch efforts to improve veterans’ support for the AAPI community.

Chaudhary holds a Doctorate specialising in executive leadership and Innovation from the Georgetown University D.L.S. Program, an MS in Industrial Engineering from St. Mary’s University as a NASA graduate fellow, an M.A. in Operational Arts and Military Science from Air University, and a BS in Aeronautical Engineering from the US Air Force Academy.

He is a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute and holds Department of Defense acquisition certifications in program management, test and evaluation, and systems engineering.

Indian-American CEO of Dallas-based “Nextt”, Arun Agarwal, has been appointed chair of the Community Bond Task Force (CBTF) committee as part of the 2024 Capital Bond Programme development process. Agarwal will lead the Community Bond Task Force committee, a 15-member group, to assist the Dallas city council and city staff in reviewing and selecting projects for consideration in the 2024 Capital Bond Programme.

Bond programmes are intended to pay for the city’s capital needs and must be approved by voters. That means the authorised funds cannot legally pay for salaries, benefits, and other ongoing programmatic costs.

“I’m particularly excited to help make major investments in parks, trails, and recreational facilities,” Agarwal told PTI.

“Mayor Johnson has been a true champion for our city’s parks and for the efforts to build a safer and more vibrant city. I look forward to working with Mayor Johnson, my colleagues on the task force, and the residents of Dallas as we work to prioritise our city’s most pressing needs.”

“The upcoming bond programme will provide us with a critical opportunity to build for our future by investing in public safety, in infrastructure, and in our most significant needs,” Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said in a statement.

“Arun Agarwal has proven to be an effective and engaged leader in our city, and I am confident he will advocate for the right priorities for the people of Dallas on this task force.”

The task force will assess the city’s USD 13.5 billion needs inventory and recommend roughly USD 1 billion to the Dallas city council, which will make the final decision to call a bond election.

The mayor said Agarwal’s appointment underscores his administration’s commitment to ensuring that parks are treated as a top priority in the bond programme.

“We are working every day to make Dallas a safer, stronger, and more vibrant city – and we’re making substantial measurable progress,” Johnson said.

Agarwal is also chair of the Indian American CEO Council and president of the Dallas Parks and Recreation Board, board member of the US India Friendship Council, Executive Board UT Dallas, Texas Tech Innovation HUB at Research Park, Big Brothers Big Sisters International, and MD Anderson Board of Visitors.

Indian-American attorney and educator Neil Makhija has thrown his hat in the ring for the May 16 primary election for Commissioner of Montgomery County — the third largest county in Pennsylvania with over 865,000 people.

If elected, the 36-year-old election law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, would be the first South Asian member to serve for the position left open by outgoing commissioner Valerie Arkoosh.

Makhija, who belongs to a Sindhi family from India, recently announced leave from serving as Executive Director of IMPACT, the nation’s leading South Asian civic organisation, to join the electoral race.

Under his leadership, IMPACT has endorsed several Indian and South Asian American candidates who have been elected at various levels of the government.

In 2021, Makhija was one of 13 civil rights leaders invited to the White House to advise President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on voting rights.

He was named by City & State PA as one of the “40 under 40” most influential people in Pennsylvania politics.

In 2016, he was the Democratic nominee for the 122nd state House district, a race he lost.

In his former law practice, Makhija has an experienced background on issues of mental health and addiction. He represented Pennsylvania counties in opioid litigation and notably, children and parents in an early class action against Big Tobacco companies who marketed flavoured e-cigarettes to children.

In 2019, he inspired and advised a US House Oversight Committee panel on an investigation into the youth e-cigarette epidemic, which led to a nationwide ban of flavoured e-cigarettes.

Makhija worked at the White House, Senate, and earned his JD at Harvard Law School on the Horace Lentz Scholarship.

While at Harvard, he founded the HLS Homelessness Coalition and was a Senior Policy Editor on the Harvard Law & Policy Review.

He received his B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, where he studied neuroscience and served as co-president of his class and 2009 commencement speaker.

As the son of Indian immigrants, the Pennsylvania native is passionate about enfranchising underrepresented communities and engaging new citizens in state and local politics.

Montgomery County Commission is the governing body of Montgomery County, consisting of five members who are elected by districts.

Each Commissioner is elected to a four-year term and represents approximately 45,000 constituents.

The Montgomery County Commission’s responsibilities include control of all county public funds, adoption of an annual budget reflecting anticipated income and expenses (by law, expenditures cannot exceed revenue received).

Among other responsibilities, the board, which oversees an annual budget of more than $500 million, will oversee the administration of the 2024 election, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Anjali Kaur, the Deputy Assistant Administrator of USAID, is now in India to enhance the US-India development relationship. She will deliver a speech at an event to commemorate Women’s History Month and elevate women leaders and youth change-makers who are addressing gender-based violence, stigma, and discrimination and reducing barriers to equitable access to health services in their communities, on March 15 in Delhi.

Who is Anjali Kaur?

Anjali Kaur is the Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for Asia. She is an international development professional with comprehensive experience at the field, country, and global levels with evidence-based, integrated global health programs.

She is a Fulbright Scholar and received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Johns Hopkins University.

Before joining USAID, Kaur was the Senior Program Officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where she led the global policy and advocacy strategies for the HIV and TB programs.

Prior to that, she was the Senior Director of Asia Pacific for Malaria No More, where she established the India Office and expanded the organization’s work across the region, engaging with governments, the private sector, civil society, and the media.

Kaur was also with UNICEF’s Polio Programme, where she worked at the country and HQ levels, as well as with the World Bank and UNFPA. She was responsible for recruiting and managing celebrities, including Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, to serve as polio goodwill ambassadors.

American conglomerate Honeywell has announced the company’s ‘veteran’ Vimal Kapur as its next chief executive officer.

Currently working as the president and chief operating officer, the Indian-origin business executive will assume his new role on June 1, succeeding Darius Adamczyk who will stay at the company as its chairman.

Kapur now joins the growing number of Indian-origin executives appointed to key positions in multinationals based in the West, led by Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella and Arvind Krishna of IBM.

Last month, Neal Mohan was appointed to the corner office of Google’s video-sharing platform YouTube.

Kapur, who specialises in instrumentation, “is absolutely the right person” to lead Honeywell “to the next level of growth and stellar performance,” Adamczyk said on Tuesday (14).

A graduate in electronics engineering from Thapar Institute of Engineering in India’s Patiala, Kapur, 57, joined Honeywell soon after his education. His career at the company has spanned more than three decades during which he held several key positions.

He was named president and chief operating officer in July of last year and has overseen the integration of the Honeywell Accelerator across the organisation.

Kapur previously worked as the president and CEO of Honeywell’s Performance Materials Technologies (PTM) which is involved in the development of high-performance products and solutions.

Kapur has demonstrated that he can “nimbly evolve business strategies to fit any circumstances,” Adamczyk said.

Having brought “34 years of deep knowledge about our businesses”, Kapur is capable of driving Honeywell’s “sustainable innovation and solidifying our position to lead in the energy transition,” Adamczyk said.

Honeywell, based in North Carolina, is a Fortune 100 company with a global workforce of 97,000. The 117-year-old company, which clocked a revenue of 35.47 billion (£29.37 bn) in 2022, is involved in aerospace, performance materials & technologies, building technologies and safety & productivity solutions.