Rajiv Shah takes the helm of USAID

I / Washington January 8, 2010, 9:30 IST

Rajiv Shah has been officially sworn in today as the administrator of US Aid for International Development (USAID), making him the highest ranking person of Indian origin in any presidential administration.

The 39-year-old Indian-American was sowrn in today by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as the chief of USAID which oversees disbursal of $40 billion US foreign aid programme.

In this position, Shah would be leading the Obama Administration's effort of non-military aid to foreign countries, including Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"I believe Dr Raj Shah will be the transformational leader that USAID has been waiting for," Clinton said at the swearing in ceremony of Shah as chief of the USAID.

 

"One only needs to ask his wife Shivam the lengths to which Raj will go to achieve important goals. After all, this is a man who flew to India for one day to propose to her at the Taj Mahal when she was traveling there alone," Clinton said, while giving a few insider details about the man.

"This is also a man who summitted the 14,400-foot Mount Rainier, one of the most difficult climbs in the continental United States. It combines the challenges of an unforgiving glacier with the unpredictability of an active volcano. That may be the best preparation Raj has for working in Washington these days," she said.