Two Indian Americans — Congressman Ro Khanna and Vijaya Gadde — prominently figure in US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden’s laptop story whose full disclosure Twitter CEO Elon Musk has announced would be released on the microblogging site.

Musk, the world’s richest man who purchased Twitter last month, said on Friday that he would release details about what he characterised as Twitter’s “suppression” of a controversial story done by the New York Post newspaper about Hunter Biden’s laptop that was published before the 2020 US election.

He also tweeted that it would be “awesome” and there would be a “live Q&A” on the topic.

The story claimed to contain emails retrieved from a laptop belonging to Hunter. The New York Post said it learned of the emails’ existence from Trump’s ex-White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, and obtained the emails from Trump’s personal lawyer at the time Rudy Giuliani.

Twitter initially limited the distribution of the story, citing concerns that it could be the result of a foreign disinformation campaign. But the social media company quickly backtracked on its response, with then-CEO Jack Dorsey calling the decision to block the link “unacceptable”.

Khanna is the Democratic Congressman representing Silicon Valley in the US House of Representatives, while Gadde, an attorney, served as general counsel and the head of legal, policy, and trust at Twitter before she was fired by new boss and CEO Musk.

A series of tweets along with internal communications of Twitter was released by writer Matt Taibbi regarding the allegations that the social media platform during the 2020 election cycle had suppressed news and information related to the laptop of Hunter.

According to the information released by Taibbi, Khanna appears to have questioned the decision of Twitter to restrict access to an investigative report of the New York Post newspaper on Hunter’s laptop. As the information started coming in, Musk in a tweet said: “Ro Khanna is great”. Khanna in a confidential email to Gadde opposed the so-called censorship by Twitter.

“I say this as a total Biden partisan and convinced he did not do anything wrong. But the story now has become more about censorship than relatively innocuous emails and it’s become a bigger deal than it would have been,” Khanna wrote to Gadde.

“In the heat of a presidential campaign, restricting dissemination of newspaper articles (even if New York Post is far Right) seems like it will invite more backlash than it will do good,” Khanna wrote to Gadde and requested her not to share the text of their emails.

Khanna said that such a move by Twitter seems to be a violation of the 1st Amendment principles.

New York University will invest $1 billion over 20 years to improve the ranking of its Tandon School of Engineering, named after Indian American philanthropists Chandrika and Ranjan Tandon.

The investment, announced by NYU President Andrew Hamilton, is also aimed at raising the profile of New York City as a technology hub.

A news release issued by the university said it has already acquired a 350,000 square foot building adjacent to Tandon School. “The purchase of the new facility will help support an ongoing $1 billion investment in Tandon to significantly advance engineering at NYU by recruiting 40 new full-time tenure track faculty, fueling groundbreaking research, and growing and modernizing its Downtown Brooklyn campus,” the release said. “The funding will fuel basic and applied research in key interdisciplinary areas of global import—secure wireless ecosystems and supply chains, health engineering, sustainable engineering, and data science to improve the human condition.”

“Continuing the stunning upward trajectory! So thrilling!” Chandrika Tandon, who, along with her husband, Ranjan, donated $100 million to the school in 2015, tweeted Wednesday. The philanthropist was present at an event where the announcement was made.

“Problems don’t require an engineering solution, they require a multidisciplinary solution,” she was quoted as saying by the official Twitter handle of NYU Tandon.

The New York Times reported that the “investment includes $600 million that was already slated” for the school and “an additional $400 million in new funds.”

The paper wrote that the 10-story 3 MetroTech Center building was purchased in September.

The $100 million donated by the Tandons was used to improve lab and recruit academics specialized in the areas of robotics, health and data science.

“We feel privileged to be able to participate in the transformation that is happening at NYU and at the School of Engineering,” Chandrika Tandon said while announcing the gift in 2015. “As a trustee of NYU, I have had a front row seat to the energy and excitement of the Global Network University and the scale of possibility it presents.”

The Times reported that the investment improved the position of Tandon School in the U.S. News and World Report ranking from 82 in 2006 to 33 this year.

Tandon, a Grammy-nominated artist, is a big proponent of technology. “Sitting with the with some of the greatest minds in in the engineering school, the potential of what is happening in technology, whether it’s in the space of wearables, whether it’s in the space of what is going to happen in in the fields of health, and the field of … urban informatics, what’s going to happen is mind-boggling,” she said in an interview streamed last year on DesiMax. “So technology is not something that is just sort of on the sidelines that one can sort of look at and say,”Oh, you know I’m an artist.” The field of the arts has transformed, the field of health is transformed, and we ain’t seen nothing yet. You know it’s just beginning.”

Sundar Pichai, the Indian-origin CEO of Alphabet and Google, said he was deeply grateful to the Indian government and the people of India, on being conferred with the Padma Bhushan, one of India’s highest civilian honours. India’s Ambassador to the United States, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, presented Pichai with the honour on behalf of the Indian Government.

Pichai and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, were among a list of business leaders conferred with the honour in the Trade and Industry category, on the eve of the country’s 73rd Republic Day earlier this year.

“India is a part of me. I carry it with me wherever I go. (Unlike this beautiful award which I will keep somewhere safe.). I was fortunate to grow up in a family that cherished learning and knowledge, with parents who sacrificed a lot to make sure I had opportunities to explore my interests,” Pichai said in a statement, reacting to the honour.

He further said that innovations created in India are benefitting people around the world — from digital payments to voice technology. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India vision has certainly been an accelerator for that progress. I am proud that Google continues to invest in India, partnering with governments, businesses and communities over two transformative decades,” he added.

Google recently said it would invest $10 billion in India, to enable more affordable internet access, build products for India’s unique needs, help businesses of all sizes in their digital transformation, and use AI to tackle big societal challenges. “I look forward to continuing the great partnership between Google and India, as we work together to bring the benefits of technology to more people”, Pichai said.

From humble beginnings in Chennai to becoming the CEO of 2 technology giants – Google and Alphabet, it’s been an incredible rise to the top for Pichai.

Born in Madurai to a stenographer mom and an engineer dad, Sundar Pichai grew up in a two-room apartment in Chennai. He completed his BTech from IIT Kharagpur, followed by an MS at Stanford and an MBA at Wharton.

Pichai worked with McKinsey and Applied Materials before joining Google in 2004 as product manager. He was appointed VP of product development in 2008, and senior VP of Chrome and apps in 2012, before leading Android in 2013. He became the CEO of Google in 2015, when Alphabet was carved out as a separate entity, and was later appointed as the chief of Alphabet and Google in 2019, joining a long list of global CEOs of Indian origin.

For the first time in its 37-year history, South by Southwest® (SXSW) celebrating the convergence of tech, film, music, education, and culture will partner with South Asian House (SAH) to highlight, recognize, and appreciate South Asians.

Convening at Fourth and Co in the iconic Warehouse District of downtown Austin, six blocks from SXSW event headquarters on March 11 and 12, 2023, the first-ever SAH during SXSW will feature two full days of programming, according to an SAH press release.

It will range from panel discussions on women in film, business tech, and climate change to curated sets of live and electronic music to a Reel Deal session, Comedy Hour, Industry Leadership Sessions, Mental Health Corner, Queer/Dalit Visual Art NFTs, and Desi Drag Brunch.

SAH will culminate in a red carpet, awards ceremony on Oscar® Sunday recognizing South Asian Trailblazers in Cinema. It will also recognize accomplished members of the diaspora from the seven South Asian nations – India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Maldives.

SAH is the brainchild of veteran producers, curators, and programers Rohi Mirza Pandya (Box Office Guru Media & Desipina), Monika Samtani (Ms Media & The Fem Word), Jitin Hingorani (Jingo Media & DFW South Asian Film Festival), and Kirtana Banskota (Banskota Productions & Nepal America Film Society).

SAH will also welcome community leaders and partners such as Shelly Kapoor Collins, founder of the Shatter Foundation, a nonprofit to bring entrepreneurship education to girls.

As one of the first to come on board, Kapoor Collins says, “I am thrilled to partner with South Asian House in their endeavor to support not only the community as a whole, but to create a leadership program and space for female founders and entrepreneurs. Shatter Foundation is proud to be a part of this inaugural event at SXSW in 2023.”

Also joining SAH will be The Partnership, Inc, a nationally-recognized organization supporting the development of professionals of color into authentic leaders and the transformation of corporate cultures into diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplaces.

Since 1987, they have worked with more than 600 companies across all industries and provided more than 6,000 professionals with unparalleled leadership development programs and services.

Storylounge Studios, a NYC based artistic collective whose work spans the fields of digital media, film, theater, and music, will present “The Reel Deal,” hosted by Vick Krishna (TikTok, Gotham Comedy Club, NYC) and Samrat Chakrabarti (Mr Robot, Midnight’s Children), focused on how to make effective Instagram and TikTok reels, as well as a Variety Show with music and comedy featuring special guests.

Other programming partners include Ragoth Bala, one of the co-founders of The Cumin Club, a brand that makes it easier to enjoy authentic Indian meals in just minutes.

Their plant-based menu of 30+ regional dishes from all over India is curated by expert chefs and made with all-natural ingredients, zero preservatives, and healthy sides for a complete meal you can feel great about.

To round out the weekend’s eclectic programming, Indo Warehouse, a premium brand across New York’s world class electronic music scene, will feature its founding artists, Kahani and Kunal Merchant, who have played across the globe from Ibiza to Tulum. They will extend the reach of their sound at SAH, as they prepare for global expansion in 2023.

Pooja Kumar, Award-winning actress states, “I am so excited to be an official mentor for the South Asian House, which is bringing top Indian cinema and talent to Texas through its international curation.”

Other mentors include Milan Chakraborty, Head of Film at Marginal Mediaworks and SXSW veteran, and Falguni Lakhani Adams, Executive Producer at VICEMedia, who will also serve as a panelist on SAH’s “Women In Film” panel.

Additional programming partners include: Women in Film & Television (WIFT); Maria Gotay Designs, Guru Tax Pro, Austin and Satwic Mudigulam.

All curated events at SAH will require an official SXSW badge or attendees will be required to RSVP and attend on a first-come, first-served basis.