USA elected Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. as its 46th President in the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election, held in November and will take oath in January 2021. His deputy Kamala Harris was elected as first Woman Vice President in the history of the U.S.and a first person of Indian-African origin. Both of them are great achievers in the face of enormous challenges. Joe Biden, as he is called, is a devoutly religious person with Himalayan patience, as his aids describe him. He has fought and won one of the world’s most challenging Presidential elections, despite many personal tragedies, health struggles and not to talk of the attacks on his personal life and family. The resilience shown by the U.S. President-Elect is expected to have a rub-off effect on the policies that the administration will roll out from next year. No less has been the challenges overcome by U.S.Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris. She has, on many occasion, highlighted the fear, dismissal, humiliation and challenges that woman, mostly the black, south Asian undergo in the U.S. and the world as well. However, she describes her success as a representative of those women who have suffered, struggled and paved the way for her to become Vice President of USA. Not only that but, she also inspires many young girls, to believe that they can. Together, Biden-Harris team is perhaps one of the most mature leaders of a generation in the U.S. politics. The two have a few immediate tasks cut out that they have also spelt out in their election result acceptance speeches.

On top of the priority, they would be dealing with the pandemic. Indian Prime Minister NarendraModi has congratulated the U.S. President-Elect and Vice President-Elect through his following tweets.

It is expected that India-U.S. bilateral relations, that have developed into a “global strategic partnership”, will have shared democratic values and increasing convergence of interests on bilateral, regional and global issues. T h e e m p h a s i s p l a c e d b y t h e Government in India on development and good governance has created opportunity to reinvigorate bilateral ties and enhance cooperation under the motto — “Chalein Saath Saath: Forward Together We Go”, and “Sanjha Prayas, Sab ka Vikas”: Shared Effort, Progress for All, adopted during the first two summits of Prime Minister Modi and the then U.S. President Obama in September 2014 and January 2015 respectively.

Regular exchange of high-level political visits has provided sustained momentum to bilateral cooperation. In contrast, the wide-ranging and everexpanding dialogue architecture has established a long-term framework for India-U.S.A. engagement. Today, the India-America bilateral cooperation is broad-based and multisectoral, covering trade and investment, defence and security, education, science and technology, cybersecurity, hightechnology, civil nuclear energy, space technology and applications, clean energy, environment, agriculture and health. Dynamic people-to-people interaction and support across the political spectrum in both countries nurture our bilateral relationship.

The 3.5million-plus strong IndianAmerican community is an important ethnic group in the U.S., accounting for about 1% of the total population in the country. Indian-American community inludes alarge number of professionals, business entrepreneurs and educationalists with increasing influence in the society. With two Indian-Americans occupying highlevel posts and several representatives of the people, the Indian diaspora has assimilated into their adopted country and is acting as a catalyst to forge closer and stronger ties between India and the U.S. The two countries have been working together to facilitate the travel of their respective citizens. To this end, an MOU was signed in June 2016 to facilitate India’s joining of the Global Entry Programme for expedited immigration for eligible Indian citizens at the U.S. airports. The future relations between the two countries have a sound foundation. The new administration will look to build on it. “My dream is that in 2020, the two closest nations in the world will be India and the United States. If that occurs, the world will be safer,” Biden said in an interview in December 2006. He certainly has the opportunity to make that dream become a reality during the next four years.

Harvard Business School will have an Indian born economist as its Dean from January 2021. It is a proud moment for every Indian as it is one of the biggest achievements by an individual in professional business school. Dr Srikant Datar, an Indian American economist and the Arthur Lowes Dickinson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School in October 2020, was named the eleventh Dean of Harvard Business School.

He is scheduled to take charge on January 1, 2021. His students cite Datar as a dedicated and innovative teacher. The Distinguished Teaching Award at Stanford University was given to him for his teaching techniques in class. He teaches MBA and executive education classes in design thinking, innovation, big data, and strategy implementation. A graduate with distinction from the University of Bombay, he received gold medals upon graduation from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India. A Chartered Accountant, he holds two masters degrees and a Ph.D. from Stanford University. Datar also received the George Leland Bach Award for Excellence in the Classroom at Carnegie Mellon University. He is a co-author of the leading cost accounting textbook, Cost Accounting: A Managerial Emphasis published by Prentice-Hall, and of Rethinking the MBA: Business Education at a Crossroads published by Harvard Business Press.

Selected by Thinkers50 India as one of 50 Indian Management Thinkers who had an impact on the theory and practice of management in 2015, Rethinking the MBA: Business Education at a Crossroads was selected by Strategy Business as one of the Best Business Books of 2010. Datar has several research and course development interests. His initial areas of research interest were in cost management and management control, strategy implementation and governance. Over the last few years, his areas of Interest are management education, design thinking and innovative problem solving, and machine learning and artificial intelligence.

He has published his research on activity-based management, quality, productivity, time-based competition, new product development, bottleneck management , incentives a n d performance evaluation in several prestigious journals, including The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Accounting Research, Contemporary Accounting Research, and Management Science. Datar has also developed two new courses on Developing Mindsets for Innovative Problem Solving and Managing with Data Science. He has served on the editorial board of several journals and presented his research to academic and executives audiences in North America, South America, Asia, Africa, and Europe.

Datar serves on the Board of Directors of ICF International, Novartis AG, Stryker Corporation, and T-Mobile US, and has worked with many corporations on consulting and fieldbased projects. He is a member of the American Accounting Association and the Institute of Management Accountants. His areas of Interest include balanced scorecard, corporate governance, innovation, performance management, strategy implementation.

The Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, has called upon India to become achievers rather than depend on others. It is an opportunity for all when the government is charting a new path, amidst the economic and pandemic crisis, that the whole world is grappling with. “The state of the world today teaches us that an ‘Atmanirbhar’ or “Self-reliant India” is the only path. It is said in our scriptures – EshahPanthah that is, self-sufficient India,” said the Prime Minister on August 15, 2019, speaking from the ramparts of the Red Fort.

Atmanirbhar Bharat will become the springboard on which a New India could pole-vault to an era of sustainable economic prosperity and societal good. Suppose the execution matches the vision and mission, in that case, India will bridge the gap created by the current economic crisis as well as digital divides between the haves and the have-nots. Remember, the Y2K crisis at the beginning of this century. Technology experts from India pulled the world out of that crisis. Today India has the resources, the power, and the best software, hardware and design talent in the world.

“We will make the best products, will improve our quality further, make the supply chain more modern, we can do this, and we will do it,” said Modi. His confidence comes from the enormous human resource talent that is available in India, across all the sectors. He is confident that self-reliance will prepare the country for tough competition in the global supply chain, and the country must win this competition. The Prime Minister’s faith in his vision to make India ‘Atmanirbhar,’ was reciprocated by the people. During the pandemic, crisis taught us the importance of local manufacturing, the local market and local supply chains. All our demands during the crisis were met ‘locally’.

The supporting call to boost ‘Atmanirbhar,’ was to be vocal about the local products and help these local products become global. Under this mission, a considerable number of PPE kits, medicines and other medical equipment were exported to many countries, including a few developed nations. “Atmanirbhar Bharat provides a truly watershed moment in our history to ignite the innovative entrepreneurial spirit of New India by focusing on strengthening its pillars, which will ensure an unprecedented wave of long-deserved growth, prosperity and well-being that can serve the interests of the rest of the world as well,” states R. Ramanan, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission, Additional Secretary, NITI Aayog in one of his articles.

He ensured that the vision of achieving ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat,’ was followed up, when on May 12, the Prime Minister announced a special economic package and gave a clarion call for Atmanirbhar Bharat. The Special economic and comprehensive package was of Rs. 20 lakh crores – equivalent to 10% of India’s GDP – to fight COVID-19 pandemic in India.

Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu Vice President of India and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha describes Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan as a mission to galvanize the forces of growth across the country in various sectors of the economy. He, said it was a launch pad for fostering entrepreneurship ,  nurturing innovation and creation of an ecosystem for rural-urban symbiotic development. Mr Naidu also pointed out that Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan was not a call for protectionism or isolationism, but for adopting a pragmatic development strategy that would enable the country to recognize and capitalize on its inherent strengths. Atmanirbhar Bhart has given an opportunity to many. Over the years, India can expect many ‘achievers’ in every field. The government’s effort in promoting achievers is critical to making India the ‘Vishwaguru.’

Dr Harsh Vardhan, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, India, as the Chairman of the World Health Organization’s Executive Board, is expected to provide the decisive direction, in combating the Covid pandemic. WHO is already providing leadership to the entire world in the sphere of public health, engaging with partners for joint actions, shaping the research agenda and stimulating the dissemination of valuable knowledge. “The need is to catalyze further change,” said Dr Harsh Vardhan, Chair-elect of the World Health Organization’s Executive Board.

Health is central to enhancing human capabilities. Protecting the health of those without wealth should be the core philosophy of our close alliance at the WHO, Dr Harsh Vardhan said. Dr Harsh Vardhan has a rich experience in public health. He is the pioneer of India’s successful pulse polio program and has been at the forefront in the fight against tobacco and many other issues. The world can now gain from his expertise and experience. This move has also reiterated that Indians in the world stage have carved a niche for themselves. He has been elected to this post at a very challenging time. He would be using all his experience along with a team, the best in the world, to steer the Executive Board as it addresses this defining pandemic and other public health issues.

WHO ’s Executive Board comprises of 34 members elected for three-year terms. Its members elect the Chairperson of the Executive Board on being nominated by the Regional Committees of the six WHO Regions, by rotation. At the 72nd Regional Committee Session of WHO South-East Asia in September 2019, Member States had nominated India to be a member of the WHO Executive Board from the Region to replace Sri Lanka whose term expired in May 2020 and also to lead 147th and 148th Sessions of the Executive Board as Chairperson. The other countries from the WHO South-East Asia Region in the Executive Board are Bangladesh (2019- 2022) and Indonesia (2018-2021). The main functions of the Board are to implement the decisions and policies of the Health Assembly and advise and facilitate its work.