The California Connection: Rishi Sunak

People of Indian origin all over the world are celebrating that Rishi Sunak, whose family originated in India, is now the Prime Minister of the country that ruled India for 200 years.

Here in the United States, the second most powerful person, Vice President Kamala Harris was born to an Indian mother.

I will write later about how some people of Indian origin rise to such heights in politics, business and academia. Today I want to highlight the role of California and of Stanford University in particular.

As a young high-achieving Oxford graduate, Rishi Sunak won a Fulbright Scholarship, which enabled him to study in the United States. Sunak obtained his MBA from Stanford University in California in 2006.

In the meantime, Akshata, the daughter of NR Narayana Murthy, who was a co-founder of Infosys (and like me a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur) decided to come to Claremont McKenna College in southern California to study Economics and French. She also obtained a degree from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) in downtown Los Angeles. Akshata Murthy then went on to join the MBA program at Stanford University. Akshata is worth almost one billion dollars, since she owns about 1% of Infosys stock.

Rishi and Akshata met at Stanford and went on to get married in August 2009. Tomorrow Sunak will become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the first brown person to take on this role. This happens shortly after India's GDP exceeded that of the United Kingdom

American Vice President Kamala Harris was born in California to an Indian mother, Shyama Gopalan, and a father from Jamaica, Donald J Harris who is Professor Emeritus at Stanford University. Kamala Harris broke a number of glass ceilings along the way, become Attorney General of California, US Senator from California, a presidential candidate and finally Vice President. She is married to Douglas Emhoff, a prominent attorney here in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles (only 2 miles from where I am sitting now). Emhoff's net worth exceeded that of his wife when they were married, primarily due to his real estate holdings.

Want to rise in politics in a Western Democracy as a person of Indian origin? Come to California!