NICK RATHOD, Parag Mehta , Arti Rai, Anjan Mukherjee, Rachana Bhowmik, Subhasri Ramanathan, Natasha Bilimoria and Puneet and Talwar Puneet are the Indian names who will sit in the White House next month when Barack Obama will assume charge. The transition team of the newly elected US President has roped in a number of Indian-Americans, mostly specialists and leading academicians, to assist the Democrats in assuming the responsibilities of the administration.

While, Indian American Nick Rathod has been appointed director to the Office of Inter-governmental Affairs, Parag Mehta from Texas will oversee affairs of minority groups, including Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, as deputy director of inter-governmental affairs and public liaison. Rathod is currently the national outreach director of South Asians for Obama and one of its founding members.

Arti Rai, a former classmate of Obama at Harvard Law School, who is currently a professor of patent law at Duke University, has been appointed member of the agency review team on science, technology, space, arts and humanities.

The agency review teams are charged with completing a thorough review of various departments, agencies and commissions in the US government to craft policy, budgetary and personnel decisions prior to the President’s inauguration.

Anjan Mukherjee, another Indian-American, who is a passed out from the Harvard Business School and managing director at the private equity firm Blackstone, has been named one of the several leads on the economics and international trade agency review team.

Besides, Rachana Bhowmik, Subhasri Ramanathan, Natasha Bilimoria and Puneet Talwar will all serve as members of the state, national security, defence, intelligence and arms control agency review teams.

Bilimoria, who also part of the Clinton administration, is the executive director of Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis - a non-profit organisation working to engage Americans in prevention of these diseases in the developing world.

Meanwhile, Puneet is a senior staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and previously served on the State Department’s policy planning staff.