Nancy Powell lauds contribution by Indian-Americans

Praising the success of Indian Americans in several sectors in that country as "impressive", the United States Ambassador to India Nancy J Powell today said they have helped accelerate the transformation of India-US relations.
"Despite constituting less than one per cent of the US population, Indian-Americans are three per cent of my nation's engineers, seven per cent of our IT workers and eight per cent of our physicians and surgeons. And in the process, they have helped accelerate the transformation of US-India relations," Powell said addressing a function here.
She was participating at the 50th anniversary programme here commemorating Martin Luther King Jr's "March towards Washington" held on August 29, 1963.

"Indian Americans play a vital role in shaping the narrative around India in the United States by forging valuable people-to-people ties that have been the anchor of bilateral relationship," she said.
Besides, Indian Americans played a "key-role" in transforming India and United States relationship into a "strategic partnership", she said.
"One of our key areas of shared interest under this strategic partnership is collaboration in education. Indeed, education, understanding other cultures, and knowledge about the world, are what helped shape both Mahatma Gandhi and Dr King's philosophies," she said.
Powell, who recalled that it was on her first day in her Tenth class of schooling when Martin Luther King began his March towards Washington, said,"President Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have both placed education at the forefront of their national agendas."

The key areas of collaboration between India and the United States in education include student and faculty exchanges, research cooperation and facilitating relationships between Indian and American universities, she said.