U.S.-India: Strengthening a Global Partnership


Deepa Iyer (photo courtesy SAALT)

Indian-American’s Experience Drives Her Immigrant Rights Advocacy

When Deepa Iyer moved from India to Kentucky she was 12 years old, an awkward age for drastic adjustment. Blazing a path from there to being the executive director of the increasingly influential South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow took a combination of hard work, timely opportunity and key influences that shaped her perceptions of democracy.

According to Iyer, people made assumptions about her family’s origins and their English-language skills based on inaccurate stereotypes. Seeing other immigrants and minorities have similar experiences “shaped my desire to become part of a movement in the United States that was based on social justice and equality,” she says. (complete text)

Delegates Pledge $605 Million in New Delhi for Avian Flu Fight

Eight nations and the European Commission pledge $605 million in the continuing fight against the spread of H5N1 avian influenza in birds and people for efforts focusing on halting the virus at its avian source, bolstering disease surveillance and integrating animal and human health services and capabilities. The pledges come on the final day of the New Delhi Ministerial Conference on Avian and Pandemic Influenza, hosted by the government of India in collaboration with the International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza, launched by President Bush in 2005. (complete text)

Experts Seek Strategies To Save India’s Tigers from Extinction

Wildlife experts and government officials from India and the United States met at India’s famed Ranthambore tiger reserve in early November to discuss ways to counter the factors driving one of the world’s most iconic animals toward extinction. The rapid dwindling of the wild tiger population is a problem the U.S. and Indian governments "are very dedicated to trying to solve, but in a way we are working against a ticking time clock here,” says Assistant Secretary of State Claudia McMurray. (complete text)

SPECIAL FEATURE

New Release
Historians on America