Washington DC
A three-day convention of the National Federation of Indian American Associations (NFIA) elected Angela Anand as its first female president.
Other officials are: Exec Vice President - Ms. Lavanya Reddy; Vice Presidents - Dr. Yogendra Gupta, Mr. Ashok (Pat) Patnaik and Mr. Subbarao Makam; Secretary - Ms. Rachel Varghese; Joint Secretary - Dr. Satish Misra; Treasurer - Mr. Ajoy Dube. Directors-at-Large - Ms. Pooja Thomre, Mr. Satheesan Nair, Dr. Om Sharma, Ms. Padma Gupta, Mr. Babu K Patel, Dr. Lalita Kaul and Ms. Aparna Hande;
Regional Vice Presidents - Mr. Kamlesh Munshi (Capital), Ms. Vasu Pawar (South Pacific), Ms. Raj Razdan (South East) and Mr. Amrik Kamoh (North Pacific).
The elections were conducted by the election committee chaired by NFIA founder and current chair of GOPIO, Dr. Thomas Abraham, along with past NFIA president Radha Krishna and NFIA Executive Director Harihar Singh.
The newly formed NFIA Board appointed Sudip Gorakshakar, as chairman of NFIA Foundation, Dr. Hari Har Singh as Executive Director Admin, and Kewal Kanda as Second Executive Director.
Commenting on the election, Dr. Abraham said, “Indian American women involved in the community activities have made history at the NFIA convention when all the positions for which elections have been conducted gone to women, which shows women power in our community.â€
“We hope that the new team will reach out to all Indian American community and professional organizations and make a truly representative body for the whole 4.5 million community,†added Dr. Abraham.
The convention at the at Sheraton Tyson corner in Washington, DC, November 16-18, under the presidency of Sudip Gorakshakar was led by convener Pooja Thomre of San Diego assisted by four co-conveners, Angela Anand from Capital region, Pat Patnaik from California, Yogendra Gupta from Maryland and Raz Razdan from Georgia.
The convention began with a White House briefing, arranged by vice president Angela Anand.
For more than one hour, delegates assembled at the Diplomatic Reception room at the White House – Eisenhower Executive building- heard briefing from from Raj Shah, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary and Deputy Assistant to President, Stephen Peter Munisteri, Deputy Assistant to the President and Principal Director of the Office of Public Liaison, Martha Fwu from the Public Liaison office and Pranay Udutha, who spoke on the health Initiatives of the president.
Munisteri is a retired attorney from Houston, who was chairman of the Republican Party of Texas from 2010-15. In 2016 he joined the Rand Paul for President Campaign. In 2017 he was appointed to the White House.
Delegates asked questions on health and drug issues and administration policies on pricing of drugs, advertising drugs on television, education, transportation, presidents’ economic and business policies among others.
The speakers noted the good relations of President Trump with India and hoped that he will visit India soon. It was also noted that President Trump has improved the economy, which benefits all. But the news is not reaching out to everyone due to media bias.
Udutha, who works with Kelly Ann Conway said the administration is training families to request doctors to give opioids for medical conditions for a shorter period instead of giving it for 90 days. The session ended with a tour of historical areas of the selected portions of the White House.
In the evening, delegates were hosted by the Indian Embassy and the event was organized by Yogendera Gupta. All officials including Ambassador to U.S. Navtej Sarna, Deputy Chief of Mission Santosh Jha, Minister for Community Affairs Anurag Kumar, and others attended.
The second day began with seminars on various subjects including health and fitness – diabetes, yoga, Ayurveda, philanthropy (NGO - Snehalya), business and entrepreneurship along with Technology 20-20.
‘Did we bite more than what we could chew’ was a subject of the Technology 20-20 seminar, moderated by nanotechnology expert and a well-known community leader, Dr. Thomas Abraham, NFIA founder and current chair of GOPIO, who owns a market research firm Innovative Research and Products in Stamford, Connecticut. Panelists were Digvijay “Danny†Gaekward, founder and CEO of NDS USA Information Technology; Vijay Lakshman, a serial entrepreneur, video gamer, designer, author of books; who is in technology management at present and Dr. Satyam Priyadarshy, chief data scientist at Halliburton, founder of Reignite Strategy and an adjunct faculty of several educational institutions.
The awards banquet on Saturday evening started with a cocktail hour. Students of Natya Marg Bharat Natyam dance school performed along with their artistic director Indrani Davaluri and a fellow dancer Sulochana. Students of Nrityaki performed kathak dance and vocalist Kshama Garg entertained by her melodious voice. A fashion show was organized by Indrani Davaluri. Aloke Das Gupta’s sitar recital was gracious.
At the banquet, Dr. Michael Griffin, Under Secretary of Defense; Congressman Todd Rokita (Indiana - R), Dr. John Anderson, Curator, Air and Space Museum, along with Swami Deerananda Ji, from Chinmaya Mission, spoke
Outgoing President Sudip Gorakshakar and NFIA founder president Dr. Thomas Abraham complimented Convention Convener PoojaThomre for taking the responsibility to organize a successful convention.
