Indian-origin Neera Tanden, who has been appointed as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) by US President-elect Joe Biden, said the Biden government will serve all the American people alike, including Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, reported ANI.

She said just like Vice President-elect’s (Kamala Harris) mother, Shyamala, her mother was born in India and she came to the US to pursue a better life. “I was raised in a suburb of Boston — a middle-class kid,” she said. She was speaking during the introduction of members of President-elect Joe Biden’s economic team.

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She talked about her journey and said she was thankful to her mother’s grit and their the country that has faith in her. “I’m here today because of social programmes. Because of budgetary choices,” said Tanden.

Tanden will be the first woman of colour to hold the influential position. Currently she is Chief Executive of the Center for American Progress, a public policy think tank based in Washington, D.C. The Indian-origin executive earlier served as a healthcare adviser in the Obama administration and was instrumental in drafting provisions covered under the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as ‘Obamacare’. 

She is a Democratic Party supporter, and has worked previously on presidential campaigns of several Democratic candidates, from Michael Dukakis in 1988 (as a college student) to Obama in 2008, and Hillary Clinton in 2016.