Source PTI

Noted Indian-American engineer Sanjay Ramabhadran has been named as the next chairman of the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, becoming the first from the community to lead the major public transportation agency in the US state of Texas.

Rambhadran, 51, a registered engineer and a graduate of BITS Pilani and later Texas A&M university, has served on the METRO Board since 2015 and currently serves as the Chair of the Capital & Strategic Planning Committee, a member of the Finance & Audit Committee.

He was tapped on Thursday by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner as the next chairman of Houston METRO.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County is a major public transportation agency based in Houston, Texas, United States. It operates bus, light rail, bus rapid transit, High Occupancy Vehicle lane and High Occupancy Toll lanes, and paratransit service in the city as well as most of Harris County.

Rambhadran, who is also a longtime community leader, past president of Indo-American Chamber of Greater Houston (IACCGH), if elevated, would be the first Indian-American chairman of METRO, and replace Patman, the board’s first female head, who is stepping down following her nomination by the Biden Administration to serve as ambassador to Iceland.

Mayor Turner said he hoped his appointment of both showcased the need for more diversity.

The transit agency, METRO, with an annual budget of USD 1.3 Billion, 4,100 employees, and a 1,300-square-mile service area containing 3.9 million people, has had Black and Latino chairs, along with numerous white men.

Everyone should have a seat at the table, Turner said.

To take effect, METRO board members will vote to make Ramabhadran chairman, where the city holds the majority of seats. Turner would then appoint a new member of the board.

Turner said Ramabhadran, knows how to get people together and knows how to get things done. There is incredible talent in our city. That gives me hope that no matter what challenges we face, we will overcome those challenges if we work together,” Mayor Turner said.

Ramabhadran, has helped oversee the planning, design, construction, and launch of major projects, including METRONext, that enhance mobility throughout the region.

He also worked to expand MetroRapid, the agency’s bus rapid transit (BRT) service.

He is working to enhance the travel time, reliability, and access for 17 of METRO’s high ridership bus routes as part of the BOOST initiative.

“As a prepared and proven leader, Ramabhadran is ready to steer Texas’ largest metropolitan transit authority,” Mayor Turner said.

“His leadership will play a big role in getting the ambitious METRONext and other projects right.”

Ramabhadran’s elevation was also hailed by the Indian-American community.

Jagdip Ahluwalia, founding secretary/executive director, Indo-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston (IACCGH), said: We are proud of Ramabhadran who was our first volunteer when the IACCGH was created in 1999 and rose to serve on the board and lead as president of the Chamber and continues to serve on its board .

“Ramabhadran is a role model for the Indo-American community and a proven leader who will undoubtedly do great things in his new leadership role,” said Tarush Anand IACCGH president.

An Indian-American professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, will lead a team looking into the phenomenon of ‘Valley Fever’ after winning a grant of $8.4 million from the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Manish Butte and his team will be looking into the question – Why do some people infected with Valley fever develop a potentially fatal form of the disease that ravages their body while most experience only mild symptoms or none at all?

The team led by UCLA’s Prof. Butte has been awarded the $8.4 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases will also study other questions related to genetic risk factors and immune responses to the disease, a Feb. 15, 2022 press release from the University said.

When Better.com Chief Executive Officer Vishal Garg fired 900 staffers on Zoom late last year, the cuts essentially moved a larger portion of its workforce offshore.

The online mortgage lender had been aggressively hiring in both India and the U.S. for most of 2021 to try and keep pace with a wave of refinancing. But a recent regulatory filing shows that Garg’s infamous Zoom cuts — which followed the U.S. Federal Reserve’s sudden switch on interest rates — fell much harder stateside than in lower-wage India.

The geographic shift, which effectively added 1,000 employees in India, could help Better.com stave off a downturn that’s left the company with declining revenue and higher expenses as it prepares to go public. Better.com, in the same U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing, disclosed that its fourth-quarter net loss may reach $182 million and that revenue fell as much as 22% from the previous quarter.

Factors including the workforce reduction and negative media coverage “detrimentally affected Better’s productivity and financial results,” the company said, as did rising interest rates and increased competition among lenders.

Garg has apologized for how the firings were handled and took a short hiatus from the company.

Garg didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment left on his cellphone and at his office. A spokeswoman for the New York-based firm didn’t immediately return a telephone call and email seeking comment.

Before the job cuts, Better.com was on a hiring spree as it sought to capitalize on a wave of home mortgage refinancings driven by record-low interest rates. Its workforce roughly doubled during the year to more than 10,000 by November, according to the filing.

By year-end, after Garg’s staff reduction, the company said it had 9,300 staffers. While that was lower than in November, it was still higher than the 8,100 workers it employed as of June 30, SEC documents show.

What mainly changed was the geographic mix. As of June 30, the company had 5,000 employees in the U.S. and 3,100 in India. At year-end, it had about 5,200 in the U.S. and about 4,100 in India, according to the filing. The proportion working in India had increased to 44% at Dec. 31 from 38% at June 30.

India on Saturday rejected criticism by foreign countries over the row over Muslim girls attending schools wearing headscarves as “motivated comments” on internal matters, and said the matter is being examined by the state high court.

A statement issued by external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi referred to comments by “some countries” on the dress code in educational institutions in Karnataka but didn’t name any particular country.

The statement was issued hours after the US ambassador at large for international religious freedom, Rashad Hussain, said in a tweet that hijab bans in schools violate religious freedom and stigmatise women and girls.

Bagchi said in his statement, “A matter regarding dress code in some educational institutions in the state of Karnataka is under judicial examination by the…High Court of Karnataka. Our constitutional framework and mechanisms, as well as our democratic ethos and polity, are the context in which issues are considered and resolved.”

He added, “Those who know India well would have a proper appreciation of these realities. Motivated comments on our internal issues are not welcome.”

Karnataka has been rocked by the issue, with Muslim girls seeking to assert their right to wear the hijab in educational institutes. The row originated when a group of students in one Karnataka college was barred in December last year from entering classrooms and told not to wear the hijab, a headscarf used by Muslim women. The isolated incident in one college snowballed into a major statewide issue and the controversy spread to some other colleges.

The Karnataka government on Friday night deferred the reopening of educational institutes though the high court, in an interim order, advised authorities to open schools and colleges shut since Wednesday. The state government said the closure will be extended to February 16 as a precautionary measure, though examinations will be held as scheduled and online classes will continue.

The high court’s interim order also restrained students from wearing saffron shawls or hijabs or displaying religious flags within classrooms.

The US envoy for international religious freedom, who assumed office last month, tweeted about the issue of religious freedoms on the same day that external affairs minister S Jaishankar held bilateral talks with US secretary of state Antony Blinken in Melbourne after both leaders participated in a meeting of foreign ministers of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quad.

“Religious freedom includes the ability to choose one’s religious attire. The Indian state of Karnataka should not determine permissibility of religious clothing. Hijab bans in schools violate religious freedom and stigmatize and marginalize women and girls,” Hussain said in his tweet.

Hussain, who earlier served as former president Barack Obama’s special envoy to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), is the son of Indian-American immigrants. The US Senate voted overwhelmingly last December to confirm his nomination as the US ambassador at large for international religious freedom.