Sriram Krishnan, an Indian-American technology executive, is “helping out” Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk as he revamps the social media giant following its acquisition by the billionaire entrepreneur.

Krishnan is a general partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).

“Now that the word is out: I’m helping out @elonmusk with Twitter temporarily with some other great people. I (and a16z) believe this is a hugely important company and can have a great impact on the world and Elon is the person to make it happen,” Krishnan tweeted.

Krishnan added that he is “still very much in my day job” at @a16zcrypto. “If you’re a crypto founder, you know how to find me!.”

According to his profile on Andreessen Horowitz’s website, Krishnan invests in early-stage consumer startups and serves on the boards of companies Bitski, Hopin, and Polywork.

Prior to joining a16z, Chennai-born Krishnan held numerous senior product roles and most recently, he “led core consumer teams at Twitter where he was responsible for products including the home timeline, new user experience, search, discovery, and audience growth”, his profile said.

Previously, he created and oversaw various mobile ad products for Snap and Facebook, including Snap’s Direct Response ads business and the Facebook Audience Network, one of the largest networks in display advertising, his profile said.

Krishnan started his career at Microsoft where he touched numerous projects related to Windows Azure.

Author of ‘Programming Windows Azure’ published by O’Reilly, he also co-hosts with his wife Aarthi Ramamurthy ‘The Good Time Show’ on Clubhouse, a nightly show through which they interview innovators around tech and culture.

He is an alumnus of SRM Engineering College, Anna University where he did his Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) in Information Technology, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Last week, Musk completed the USD 44 billion acquisition of Twitter and ousted chief executive Parag Agrawal, legal executive Vijaya Gadde, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and General Counsel Sean Edgett.

Musk, according to reports, plans to rethink the company’s content moderation policies and permanent bans for users who previously violated the platform’s policies, including former President Donald Trump, although he said over the weekend that no major decisions have been made yet. He also is reported to be planning large layoffs at the company.

Musk has said the process of gaining a prestigious ‘blue tick’ will be revised. Reports said the firm could start charging USD 20 per month to be verified.

Many of Twitter’s most prominent verified users said they would leave if it tried to implement the plan.

Stephen King, an American author, tweeted: ‘USD 20 a month to keep my blue check? F– that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.” Hours later, Musk replied to King: “We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about USD 8?” A blue tick is currently free and a way of signalling an account is authentic.

While there has been no official confirmation of the plan, on Monday Musk appeared to acknowledge the speculation in a new tweet which said: ‘On no, all our diabolical plans have been revealed!!’

In a separate development, Musk has denied a New York Times report that he plans to lay off Twitter workers before the start of next month to avoid having to make payouts.

The New York Times reported that Musk had ordered major job cuts across Twitter’s workforce.

Citing people with knowledge of the situation, the report said that some managers were being asked to ‘draw up lists of employees to cut.” The newspaper said the layoffs would take place before November 1, when workers were due to receive grants of shares in the company as a major part of their pay deals.

But replying to a Twitter user asking about the report, he said: ‘This is false.’

The takeover has prompted discussion among Twitter users over what the platform will look like under Musk’s ownership, the BBC said.

Some have voiced concerns that more lenient free speech policies would mean people banned for hate speech or disinformation may be allowed back to the platform.

Indian Americans in Florida, under the leadership of entrepreneur and prominent GOP donor Danny Gaekwad, has raised $100,000 for a hurricane disaster fund that provides support for those impacted by Hurricane Ian, which hit the state late last month.

The contribution was announced at a Diwali event hosted by Gov. Ron DeSantis for Indian Americans at the Florida Governor’s Mansion on Thursday, October 26, 2022.

After making an initial contribution, by presenting a check for $15,000 to the governor, Gaekwad exhorted those gathered to contribute to the Disaster Fund.

“I challenge everybody, you guys match, and we will match,” the Ocala, FL, hotelier and real estate developer said. “Let’s help our Floridians.”

Two other major donors were Ocala -based vascular surgeon Dr. Ravi Chandra and Tampa-area entrepreneur Vijay Patel. Each gave $25,000. Members of a local BAPS community also contributed $25,000.

The donations came after DeSantis said at an Indian American virtual event, hosted in his hometown by Gaekwad on October 20, that hoteliers from the community can be a big part of efforts to provide temporary housing to those who lost their home in the hurricane.

It was in response to a question by Gaekwad on how the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) and the Indian American business community can support his efforts in dealing with the hurricane recovery. Gaekwad is the governmental affairs committee chairman of AAHOA.

DeSantis said that Indian Americans also can contribute to the Florida Disaster Fund run by First Lady Casey DeSantis, an official private fund that provides financial assistance to communities responding to and recovering from emergencies and disasters.

“That money has been used to help people who have been displaced. We started with police and fire. We are going to do stuff for teachers as well as the broader community,” the governor said at the time. “That is a way you can be helpful if you want to do the charitable angle.”

Ian, a Category 4 hurricane, was the deadliest hurricane to hit Florida in 87 years.

Gaekwad said DeSantis is doing a fantastic job in the aftermath of the hurricane.

“He stood by us, all businessmen, [during] Covid,” said the businessman. “We would have been out of business, like [those businesses] in New York and California. But he stood by us, with conviction.”

Second Diwali at the Governor’s Mansion

DeSantis lit up the diya, the ceremonial lamp, along with Danny and Manisha Gaekwad, after addressing the Diwali gathering, numbering around 150.

The governor said he was happy that he was able to host another Diwali at his official home.

“Welcome back to the Government’s Mansion,” he said. “When we took office in 2019, the State of Florida had never done, at the Governor’s Mansion, Diwali celebration. So, we instituted that in 2019. It was very successful. Everyone was very happy with that.”

The popular Republican, considered one of the frontrunners in the 2024 GOP presidential race, praised the contributions of the Indian American community.

“It is important not only to recognize Diwali, but to recognize all Indian Americans in Florida, who are really helping to power our states to heights we have never seen before,” he said. “In fact, in the last few years, we have led the country on issue after issue.”

He continued, “Clearly in the business community, clearly in the medical [and] so many different fields, you see Indian Americans doing really great things for the state of Florida. So, I just want to say we really appreciate those contributions in Florida very much.

DeSantis also spoke about the success of policies.

“So we want to make sure that people have the ability to make their own decisions to earn a living and be in business, kids going to school,” he said. “Now everyone acts like they agreed with me all the time…. At the end of the day, my job as a leader is to look out for the jobs of the people I represent, even if that puts my own job in jeopardy. It is not about your own political moment.”

FIIDS publishes Indian Americans asks on issues and policy matters in US mid-term election 2022

As America heads for crucial Nov 8 mid-term Congressional elections, an Indian American think tank has published what it calls important asks on their issues and policy matters.Among the issues flagged by the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS) are stopping injustice to high tech immigrants, eliminating visa appointment delays, ending campaign of misinformation and hate and cultural recognition.

Also listed are support for US-India strategic partnership and concern over terror funding/military aid to Pakistan and inflation and recession.

“As Indian Americans are almost ~4.5million in population with a high concentration in critical competitions and swing states, they want their voice be heard on important issues and policy matters,” said FIIDS director Khanderao Kand.

As a part of a four-weeks long #IndoAmericanVotesMatter campaign, FIIDS had earlier launched, voting registration, candidate analysis, survey of Indian Americans and a campaign for voting.

FIIDS said its list of issues was based on past surveys, discussions with community leaders, analysts, and own research and analysis.

As mail-in voting has begun and will continue for the two weeks, this list will be useful for Indian American voters to reflect on and to discuss issues of their importance with candidates and within the community, it said.

Stop injustice to high tech immigrants: Though Indian immigrants are a ~30% workforce building most advancements in the tech industry that provides an international edge to the USA, the Indian tech professionals, are stagnant like bonded laborers for more than ~50-60 years due to country-wise green card limit of 5000 GC per year for processing hundreds of thousands of backlog, FIIDS said.

It urged elected officials and executives to one time clear all the backlog and pass HR 3648 Eagle Act 2022 to prohibit this backup in the future.

Eliminating visa appointment delays: After the painfully long covid period ended and travel restrictions were lifted, relatives want to visit US to meet family, attend events and heal together from the losses they endured, FIIDS said.

However, visa appointments in the US consulates in India have almost ~900 days long wait, making everyone suffer. FIIDS requested help in pursuing the department of state to add staff to eliminate the wait period.

Campaign of misinformation and hate: FIIDS said it “sadly observes that in this land of liberty and freedom, there is a vicious campaign of negative propaganda against India and the Indian diaspora, resulting not only in friction in otherwise smooth US-India relations but also increased incidents of ethnic and religious hate crimes against IndoAmericans in general and Hindu-Sikh communities in specific.”

FIIDS requested investigative agencies’ help as well as legislative help in stopping hateful misinformation campaigns and the entities behind the campaigns.

Cultural recognition: As a recognition of ~4.5million Indian Americans’ contribution as well as their cultural heritage, FIIDS wanted elected officials to introduce/support resolutions recognizing cultural festivals like Diwali – Holi, Baisakhi, Sewa Diwali, heritage months, honoring personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, Swami Vivekananda, as well as contributions of charity organizations like Sewa International, etc.

Inflation and recession: FIIDS said Indian Americans are concerned about both inflation and recession. As the sudden and high increases in interest rates so far didn’t reduce inflation but pushed the country in a recession, FIIDS suggested that “the focus should be to address root causes like increasing gas supply to reduce high gas price and pressure on production and the supply chain from China.”

The US-India strategic partnership: FIIDS said it appreciates there is a bi-partisan agreement that India is a global strategic partner and both Democrats and Republicans supported partnerships like the IndoPacific Quad as well as I2U2.

It requested continuing support for any initiatives related to the same as well as strengthening joint ventures with India in various areas like energy, startups, military manufacturing, nuclear.

FIIDS also requested lawmakers help to permanently remove India from CAATSA sanctions. To strengthen the partnership further, it requested to expedite the appointment of an ambassador to India.

Terror funding / military aid to Pakistan: FIIDS said it was aware that despite India being a global strategic partner, the Biden administration approved $450 million military F-16 upgrade, which will most likely be used against India.

Indian Americans, it said “are also more concerned that despite ongoing acts of Pak-sponsored terrorism against India, Pakistan has been removed from the watch list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the watchdog of terrorist funding.”

Canadian parliamentarian Chandra Arya greets Mr. Sunak on being the U.K.’s first Hindu Prime Minister.

Indian Americans on Tuesday, October 25, 2022, celebrated the swearing-in of Indian origin Rishi Sunak as the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister and said it was a big day for the overseas Indian community.

“This was a big Diwali present for the diaspora. Rishi was already on the Indiaspora government leaders list and we welcome him and wish him well as he takes office!” Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur and Indiaspora founder M.R. Rangaswami said.

Canadian parliamentarian Chandra Arya greets Mr. Sunak on being the U.K.’s first Hindu Prime Minister.
Indian Americans on Tuesday, October 25, 2022, celebrated the swearing-in of Indian origin Rishi Sunak as the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister and said it was a big day for the overseas Indian community.

“This was a big Diwali present for the diaspora. Rishi was already on the Indiaspora government leaders list and we welcome him and wish him well as he takes office!” Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur and Indiaspora founder M.R. Rangaswami said.

Dr. Shivangi said he has known Rishi and his family personally for several years as their relatives hail from Athani in Karnataka. “Sudha Murthy’s (Sunak’s mother-in-law) father was my professor in my medical school,” he recalled.

“I look forward to a successful transformation of the UK economy in the coming days… I wish Sunak that he brings glory and tremendous credibility to his nation, the Indian diaspora and to his ancestral land,” he said.

Al Mason, a real estate businessman from New York lauded Mr. Sunak for being the first British Prime Minister of South Asian heritage, the first Hindu and the youngest to hold the post.

Canadian parliamentarian Chandra Arya in a statement congratulated Mr. Sunak on being the UK’s first Hindu Prime Minister. “May his achievement motivate a new generation of Canadians to get more actively involved in public service,” he said.