The American Experience

In a political era where there will be no outright winner, the minority communities have been campaigning hard to woo the political parties to listen to their needs. The UK has always been seen as a successful model for ethnic minorities to make it into the mainstream political areas. The number of councillors and politicians are gradually increasing, although the progress can be sometimes slow.

In the last few years, and most notably since Barrack Obama, the first US Black President came into office, it seems that we can perhaps compare notes from the outcomes in the USA where people of Indian origin are making amazing strides in the cultural, political and economic life of the country.

It’s not just the political success, but anecdotally it seems the people of Indian origin in America are proud to be called Americans first. The same cannot perhaps cannot be said of people in the UK where the debate about identity continues.

President Obama named Vivek H Murthy as the U.S youngest Surgeon General. Mr Murthy who is only 37, practices yoga daily and visits India annually to offer free medical treatment. He now holds the highest medical post in the country – what an achievement.

As the chief spokesperson on public health in the USA, Mr Murthy’s duties include educating the public on healthcare issues, supporting healthy lifestyle options and issuing health warnings. Mr. Murthy is a faculty member at the Harvard Medical School and a founder and president of Doctors for America, an advocacy group on healthcare issues.

Another prominent figure, Richard Rahul Verma became the American Ambassador to India last year. President Verma felt that Mr Vema’s understanding of Indian culture will be highly beneficial to the ambassadorial role in Delhi. Mr Verma is a lawyer by profession with extensive experience in national security and non-proliferation issues. He was previously nominated by President Barack Obama in 2009 to serve as the Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, a position he held until March 2011.

The Indian American comprise around 2.81 million or 1% of the country’s population. The Indian community has outpaced every other ethnic group in social economic charts. Indian attain the highest educational levels of all ethnic groups with 71% of all Indians have a bachelor’s or higher degree (compared to 28% nationally)  Almost 40% of all Indians in the United States have a master’s, doctorate, or other professional degree, which is five times the national average.

Data from the 2010 U.S Census, Indian Americans have the highest household income of all ethnic groups in the United States. And figures from the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, there are close to 35,000 Indian American doctors. Among Indian Americans, 72.3% participate in the U.S. work force, of which 57.7% are employed in managerial and professional specialties. As of 2010 66.3% of Indian Americans are employed in select professional and managerial specialties compared with the national average of just under 36%.

Recently the CEO of Microsoft Satya Nadella became the highest paid executive with a pay packet of $84.3 million. My Nadella has also made it in the Time top 100 influential people. And President Obama will be honouring the Microsoft CEO with the ‘Champions of Change’ award for bringing about change within the company to support working families.

According to a Whitehouse statement “Microsoft recently announced that over the next year it will make changes to ensure that a wide variety of suppliers that do business with Microsoft in the US provide at least 15 days of paid leave each year to their employees who handle Microsoft work.”

Another notable name is the current Governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindal who has ambitions to rise up the political ladder in the biggest office in the country.

The Indian community is making great progress within the American social political system and we perhaps have to acknowledge that they are doing it with flair and the UK and USA can learn from each other.