US President Barack Obama Appoints Nisha Desai Biswal as Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia (SCA)

U.S. President Barack Obama has announced that he has nominated an Indian-American woman, Nisha Desai Biswal, to a top State Department role overseeing India and a vast swathe of nations in the region, the key post of Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia (SCA).

Pending confirmation by the Senate, Ms. Biswal, who is currently the Assistant Administrator for Asia at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), will step into the shoes of incumbent Robert Blake, and lead policymaking at the State Department for India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. 

If confirmed,she will be the first Indian-American and first member of a minority ethnic community in the U.S. to be elevated to the post

Nisha Desai Biswal, who has a B.A. from the University of Virginia, has served at USAID, headed by another Indian-American, Rajiv Shah, since September 2010