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Indian Americans among NY’s politically powerful Asian Americans
City & State’s Power of Diversity: Asian 100 list features several Indian-Americans along with other distinguished individuals from the Asian-American community, who are managing government’s affairs, business ventures, and civil society groups
Several Indian Americans from the New York state assembly, government institutions, business ventures and advocacy groups have been named in the City & State’s Power of Diversity: Asian 100 list for 2023.
City Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi, Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan, New York Taxi Workers Alliance executive director Bhairavi Desai, New York State Senators Kevin Thomas, Jeremy Cooney and Jenifer Rajkumar and New York City Council Member, Shekar Krishnan are among the Indian Americans featured in City & State’s powerful Asian-American  list for 2023.
In the Asian 100 list, Rohit T. Aggarwala, New York City Chief Climate Officer; Commissioner, New York City Department of Environmental Protection; Neal Kwatra, founder and CEO, Metropolitan Public Strategies; Satish Tripathi, president, University at Buffalo; Rajiv Shah, president, The Rockefeller Foundation;  Preet Bharara, partner, WilmerHale;  Nayan Parikh, president, Ashnu International; Dev Awasthi; vice president, Corporate and Legislation, Kasirer; Nikki Singh, senior manager of Policy and Advocacy, The Sikh Coalition; Vijay Dandapani, president and CEO, Hotel Association of New York City and other distinguished Indian-Americans were included due to their influence in New York’s political, economic, social or cultural affairs.
Deputy Mayor for Operations, Joshi heads a division responsible for everything from transit to quality-of-life matters. As New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ point person on city operations, Joshi is involved in the development of BQE Central, the city-owned portion of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway; her office has made big steps to push forward the design development of the BQE Central, according to a press note. As the leader of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, Desai has been instrumental in championing workers’ rights for New York City’s for-hire drivers, including a recent focus on raising their minimum wages.
Senators Thomas, Cooney and Rajkumar have been contributing to the welfare and development of their constituencies as community leaders by various means. In 2020, Rajkumar became one of the first individuals of South Asian descent to be elected to the Assembly. She has teamed up with City Hall in a bid to make Diwali a school holiday and sponsored legislation creating the state’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Commission.
In 2017, the only  two Asian American members were in the New York Assembly. Since then, their strength rose to twelve including four in the state Senate and eight in the Assembly and representation in New York City Council has also gone up from two in 2021 to six today, according to a release.
India expects to secure a trade deal with the United States before the end of this year, as most issues have been resolved, New Delhi's trade secretary said on Nov. 28.
The U.S. imposed tariffs of up to 50 percent on imports from India starting in late August even as negotiations between the two countries continued.
Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump said that talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been going well. Trump's administration has pressured India to reduce oil purchases from Russia and to bring down tariffs, including across sensitive sectors like agriculture.
"What needs to come first is the framework trade deal, which is able to address the reciprocal tariffs," India's trade secretary Rajesh Agrawal told industry leaders at an event of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
"I think all I can say is that we are close; we have tried to iron out most of the issues," said Agrawal, adding that any remaining issues can be addressed at a "political level."
“We are very optimistic and very hopeful that we should find a solution within this calendar year,” he said.
India's trade deficit widened to a record high of $41.68 billion in October, driven by higher imports of gold and a decline in exports to the U.S.
Agrawal said the deficit was not in the "worrying zone."
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