COVID19:Pulitzer winning Indian-origin physician, compatriot in NYS commission on economic recovery

Pulitzer Prize-winning Indian-American physician Sid Mukherjee and compatriot higher education leader Satish Tripathi have been named by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo among members of a commission that will focus on plans to jumpstart the state's economy badly hit by the COVID19 pandemic.

Cuomo on Sunday announced that the state's Blue-Ribbon Commission, chaired by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, will also focus on improving telehealth and broadband access using new, innovative technologies.

The 15-member commission will include Mukherjee, Tripathi and other eminent leaders namely Chair of Rockefeller Foundation Richard Parsons, Ford Foundation President Darren Walker and President of Cornell University Martha Pollack and IBM Chair Ginny Rommety.

India-born Mukherjee is a hematologist and oncologist and an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 2011 for The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer.'
"How does that Eric Schmidt commission come up with new ideas that we can jump start to grow the economy? That is what the next chapter is going to be about. It is going to be about the government working with the private sector, with businesses to jumpstart the economy, to stimulate it, to get some big projects going that get the business sector engaged and confident and believing once again."
Cuomo recalled a conversation with a healthcare professional who had told him that if the state got to the point where fewer than 100 people were dying daily in the pandemic, he can "breathe a sigh of relief."
In April, Cuomo said that,"We are at a point financially where we have a USD 10 (billion) to USD 15 billion deficit. We have real financial problems right now."