I wrote a book called Indian Genius: The Meteoric Rise of Indians in America. The subtitle captures the essence of the book. When I embarked on the project in 2021, it was virtually impossible to turn on CNN, read the Wall Street Journal, go to a hospital, attend a university, or browse a bookstore in America without encountering a sea of Indian names and faces.During his tenure, President Barack Obama had appointed Dr. Vivek Murthy, an Indian American, as the surgeon general, and in 2021, President Joe Biden reappointed him. Two of the largest Fortune 500 companies — Microsoft and Google — were headed by CEOs born, raised, and educated through their undergraduate years in India. Headlines like ‘Indian Immigrants Are Tech’s New Titans’ were splashed across the press.And, after the Mars rover Perseverance touched down on February 18, 2021, President Biden called Swati Mohan, a lead scientist at NASA, to congratulate her. “It’s amazing,” he said. “Indian-descent Americans are taking over the country — you, my vice-president [Kamala Harris], my speechwriter [Vinay Reddy]. You guys are incredible.” It felt like the apogee of the Indian American story.
Influential Indian-origin Americans: (L-R) Former U.S. vice-president Kamala Harris, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, journalist Fareed Zakaria, and former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi.
