Joe Biden Administration

The White House on Friday released the announcement by Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris appointing Chiraag Bains and Pronita Gupta on the Domestic Policy Council. Both of them had served in the administration of former President Barack Obama, when Biden was the Vice President.

Indian-American Naureen Hassan, a 25-year veteran of the financial services industry, has been named as the First Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The Biden administration in its vision document said that in many areas, China's leaders seek unfair advantages, behave aggressively and coercively, and undermine the rules and values at the heart of an open and stable international system.

"United States has important relationships with India, as I said, but also with Pakistan. These relationships stand on their own in our view. They are not a zero-sum proposition when it comes to US foreign policy," State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said while replying to a question at his daily briefing on Washington's relations with the two neighbours.

"Unfortunately, it now seems clear that there is no path forward to gain confirmation, and I do not want continued consideration of my nomination to be a distraction from your other priorities," Tanden wrote in a letter to Biden, which was released by the White House.

"We are hoping to reunite the families either here or in their country of origin. We hope to be in a position to give them the election and if in fact they seek to reunite here in the United States, we will explore lawful pathways for them to remain in the United States and to address the family needs," Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas said in a White House briefing on Monday.

On February 24, the Biden administration issued a proclamation revoking the Trump ban that blocked individuals from entering the United States on immigrant visas but did not lift the freeze on H-1B, J-1, and L-1 visas, which remain in effect and are set to expire on March 31.

Biden believes that it is important and long overdue "to modernise our immigration system, and that includes taking steps to help ensure that high-skilled workers can stay in the country and can go through the proper process to stay in the country", his Spokesperson Jen Psaki said on Thursday.

"This is a positive step towards greater peace and stability in South Asia, which is in our shared interest and we encourage both the countries to keep building upon this progress," President Joe Biden's spokesperson Jen Psaki said during her daily briefing in Washington.

Ahuja, whose nomination was announced on Tuesday by the White House, is joining at least 20 other Indian Americans nominated by Biden to senior positions in his administration. As a member of Biden's transition team, she was in charge of ensuring a smooth move by the agency to the new administration.