Meenakshi Ahamed — Indian Genius: The Meteoric Rise of Indians in America - with Evan Osnos

It is virtually impossible to turn on CNN, read the Wall Street Journal, go to a hospital, attend a university, or browse a bookstore without encountering a sea of Indian names and faces. In her new book, Indian Genius: The Meteoric Rise of Indians in America (Harper360; February 28, 2025), author and journalist Meenakshi Ahamed provides fascinating portraits of the Indian Americans at the forefront of the wave of Indian success stories.Ahamed's brilliant portraits of such well-known figures as Satya Nadella, Vinod Khosla, Shantanu Narayen, Chandrika Tandon, Nikesh Arora, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Deepak Chopra, Nikki Haley, and Fareed Zakaria populate the pages of her book. Based on a series of interviews and full of fresh and surprising stories, Indian Genius reveals the private strengths that made possible each individual's public achievements.What accounts for Indian Americans' remarkable ability to break into mainstream American culture and their meteoric rise within its ranks? Other immigrant groups have found success in the U.S., but none have rocketed so far and so fast, reaching heights in a single generation that have taken other groups the better part of a century to achieve. In Indian Genius, Ahamed focuses on three areas where Indian Americans have had a singular impact: tech, medicine and public policy.The per capita income of Indian Americans far exceeds that of any ethnic group. According to a 2018 survey by the Pew Research Center, the median annual household income for Indian Americans is $100,000 higher than other Asian Americans ($75,000) and the general population ($53,600). Indians were also the most highly educated; 72 percent are college graduates, compared to 51 percent of other Asians and 30 percent of the rest of the population.It is essential reading for anyone interested in the path to success in America. PURCHASE BOOK HERE: https://politics-prose.com/product/indian-genius-meteoric-rise-indians-america-meenakshi-ahamed?v=344637&ic_referral=WFYSnLIb7i35sSG0Fvh01hawyyXvnboTYbuePaz7WqgwM5g1YNgA5g8T5pHUQ4-ljpSZikm5Fnp-YyY9KvgFO_4CLh7-MkESRsXZPag55lIDdbuR4P0i1P1XSRdO3n4VRdRBIwMeenakshi Ahamed is a freelance journalist and the author of A Matter of Trust: India-U.S. Relations from Truman to Trump, a sweeping narrative history of the turbulent seventy-year relationship between the two countries. Her writing has been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Atlantic, CNN, Wall Street Journal, Seminar, and Asian Age. She has worked at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., and for New Delhi Television, and has served on the boards of Doctors Without Borders, Drugs for Neglected Diseases, and Vellore Christian Medical College Foundation. Ahamed was born in Calcutta and received an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She divides her time between New York, Los Angeles, and New Delhi.Ahamed is in conversation with Evan Osnos. Osnos is a staff writer at The New Yorker, a CNN contributor, and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Based in Washington D.C., he writes about politics and foreign affairs. Osnos was the China Correspondent at The New Yorker from 2008 to 2013. His first book, Age of Ambition, won the 2014 National Book award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. In 2020, he published the international bestseller, Joe Biden: The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now, based on interviews with Biden, Barack Obama, and others. His latest book, Wildland was published in September 2021. Prior to The New Yorker, Osnos worked as the Beijing bureau chief of the Chicago Tribune, where he contributed to a series that won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.*recorded 3/21/2025