Indian American Congressman Ami Bera has been elected as Ranking Member of a key House Foreign Affairs Sub Committee that handles the Indo-Pacific region.

Last November, Mr Bera, 57, was re-elected as a member of the US House of Representatives from the Sixth Congressional District of California. He is the senior-most Indian American lawmaker in the House that now has five such lawmakers in the 118th Congress.

In the 117th Congress, he chaired the Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, Central Asia, and non-proliferation, where he spearheaded efforts to reinvigorate US relationships with allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific.

“I am proud to continue my leadership on the House Foreign Affairs Committee as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on the Indo-Pacific. The Indo-Pacific remains the most consequential region of the world for our national security, economic interests, and values,” Bera said in a statement on Wednesday.

“I am committed to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to address the many challenges facing the region, including the People’s Republic of China’s aggressive and coercive actions, the dire need for economic recovery post-pandemic, and the backsliding of democracy and human rights,” he said.

Congressman Bera added, “I look forward to continuing to help lead the Subcommittee’s bipartisan work towards supporting a more free, open, and prosperous Indo-Pacific.”

A nine-year-old Indian-American schoolgirl, Samedha Saxena, has been named as one of the ‘world’s brightest’ students by the United States-based Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY). The Grade 4 student at Battery Park City School in New York City was assessed in an above-grade-level exam, used by CTY to identify advanced students across the world and analyse their academic abilities.

According to the university’s press release, Samedha took the 2021-22 test along with 15,300 students from 76 countries. Of the total children who participated, less than 27 percent bagged high or grand honours as per their scores.

The prodigy was recognised for her outstanding performance on the SAT (formerly the Scholastic Aptitude Test), ACT, School and College Ability Test, or similar assessment taken as part of the CTY Talent Search. She received the honour after being one of the youngest to qualify for the program at the age of 8 in 2022.

CTY executive director, Dr Amy Shelton, extended congratulations by noting that the recognition is a ‘salute to the students’ love for learning and all the knowledge they have accumulated in their young lives so far’. She added that an exciting future awaits the kids, who will use their potential to follow their passions, achieve remarkable dreams and benefit the society.

Meanwhile, another Indian-American schoolgirl, Natasha Perianayagam, was honoured as the ‘world’s brightest’ for the second consecutive year by CTY. The 13-year-old student of Florence M Gaudineer Middle School in New Jersey attempted the test in 2021, when she was a grade 5 student. Natasha’s parents, who hail from Chennai, said that the youngster enjoys doodling and reading JRR Tolkien’s novels, PTI reported.

Nine-year-old Aaryaveer Kochhar from New Delhi also featured in the gifted students list. A student of Raghubir Singh Junior Modern School, Aaryaveer reportedly received ‘grand honours’.

Entrepreneur and venture capitalist M R Rangaswami has claimed that there has been a dramatic rise in the influence of Indian Americans in the US and stressed the need for the community to be “more high profile” about philanthropy. The founder of Indiaspora — a non-profit organization which aims at transforming the success of the Indian diaspora into meaningful impact worldwide — Rangaswami said the Indian American community has grown in all spheres, including politics, government, entrepreneurship, the medical profession as well as academics.

“It (influence and impact of Indian Americans) has been dramatic. Even recently there was an article from a Jewish American author who said, the time has now come for Indians to take over from the Jews.

“So it was almost another community kind of saying, time is now for the Indian community,” he told PTI in an interview.

Rangaswami, however, said that the community needs to do more on the philanthropy, service, and charity fronts.

“We need to be more open about it. Our community tends to be very low profile. But we need to be more high profile because all Americans need to know that we are generous and we help,” he said in response to a question.

According to him, in 2012, the big news was that Indians were one per cent of the population with Indian Americans being seven per cent of the doctors and 10 per cent of the IT workforce.

“But what we lacked at that time was any influence in politics. But in the past decade one of the things we have noticed, and this was an aspiration for Indiaspora was how to be 1 per cent of the political force. We have accomplished that pretty quickly. In three election cycles between 2012 and 2016, we were now 1 per cent of Congress,” he said.

The House of Representatives has five Indian Americans. They are Ami Bera, Ro Khanna, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Pramila Jayapal and Shri Thanedar.

“We have the Vice President (Kamala Harris) on top of that. We have built political influence,” he said.

On the business front, he referred to the long list of top Indian American CEOs, including those from Google and Microsoft.

Even though we are 1 per cent of the population, we’re more than 10 per cent of the Fortune 500 CEOs. Some of the most recent ones being Laxman Narasimhan at Starbucks and Raj (Subramaniam) at FedEx,” Rangaswami said.

“Look at the doctors. We not only have the numbers, but the Surgeon General (Dr Vivek Murthy) of the United States is an Indian. The Chief of COVID Response (Dr Ashish Jha) for the White House is Indian,” he said.

He claimed that Indian-Americans are growing rapidly in academia too with around 20,000 Indian American professors.

“Then you can look at unicorn CEOs… At least a third of companies in Silicon Valley that come for funding now have an Indian American co-founder. Across the board, the influence of our community has grown immensely in the past decade,” Rangaswami said.

Responding to a question, Rangaswami said he is very pleased that the next generation of Indian Americans are paying more attention to public service.

“Our generation came here as immigrants, to get a job, save money and educate our kids. But our children want to be historians, they want to be in public service, and in fields which are not about making money, but making an impact,” he said.

“You will see the next level of influence of our communities on issues that are not related to money,” Rangaswami said.

He, however, feels that the community has a long way to go but exuded confidence that it will be fast.

“I give it another 10 to 20 years where we will be much more assimilated, integrated with American society, our children will be growing up to be in positions of influence all across the country, whether it’s in universities or nonprofits or government,” he said.

“Like other communities, at some point, we become so assimilated that we will just be Americans. I think 65 per cent of Indian Americans are foreign-born, and 35 per cent are like our kids who are born in the US. But that’ll go higher for people born in the US and that’s when they’ll become much more Americans than Indian Americans,” Rangaswami said.

Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna will be the co-chairman of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans in the 118th Congress.

Khanna, 46, a Democrat who represents California’s 17th Congressional District, will co-chair the Caucus with Republican House colleague Mike Waltz.

“The Indian-American diaspora can play such an important role in helping strengthen the US-India partnership. I think this is a historic moment for our community. I think we’re really emerging and coming into our own as a strong voice,” Khanna told NBC News.

The India Caucus is a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers that was established in 1993 to bolster New Delhi-Washington relations.

Prior to Khanna, Congressman Ami Bera was the first Indian-American to be elected as the co-chair of the Caucus in 2015-2016 during the 115th Congress.

“I’m going to try to make it about not just us India, but also the Indian-American community and highlighting the contributions of that community,” Khanna told NBC News.

Indian-Americans are the second-largest immigrant group in the US, with their population estimated to be around four million.

As the profile of the community has grown, so too has its social, economic, and political influence.

There are presently five Indian-Americans serving in the Congress, popularly known as the ‘Samosa Caucus’ — Ami Bera, Ro Khanna, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Pramila Jayapal, and Shri Thanedar.

Khanna’s appointment comes amidst reports that he may be looking at a potential presidential run in 2024.

His recent moves have sparked speculation among Democrats in several key states that the Congressman has his eyes set on a higher office, according to Politico.

“If President Biden didn’t seek re-election, his name would have to be on the list of top contenders,” Stacey Walker, founder of the Iowa-based firm Sage Strategies, said.

Khanna — son of immigrant parents from Punjab — is seen as one of the leaders of his party’s progressive wing, and a relative newcomer on the scene who has broad appeal and formidable skills.

On US-India relations, he said last month that the relationship between the two democracies could define the 21st century.

Khanna had said in November 2022 that the US needs a strong defence and strategic partnership with India, especially in the face of escalating aggression from China.

In September last year, he had introduced a standalone bill in the US House of Representatives seeking a waiver to India against the punitive CAATSA sanctions.