Biden Administration appoints Indian-Americans to key posts in Energy Dept
Washington: The Biden Administration has appointed four Indian-Americans to senior positions in the crucial Department of Energy. The administration appointed Tarak Shah as the Chief of Staff, making him first Indian-American to serve in that position.
Tanya Das has been named as the Chief of Staff to the Office of Science, Narayan Subramanian will occupy the position of Legal Adviser in the Office of General Counsel, and Shuchi Talati has been appointed as Chief of Staff in the Office of Fossil Energy.
These talented and diverse public servants will deliver on President Biden's goal to tackle the climate crisis and build an equitable clean energy future, said Shah as the Department of Energy announced 19 senior-level appointments.
Guided by their expertise, breadth of experience and following the science, these Department of Energy appointees will contribute to creating a clean energy economy that produces millions of good-paying American jobs and safeguards the planet for future generations, Shah said.
In addition to the Biden-Harris appointees, David G Huizenga will serve as the Acting Secretary of Energy. He was most recently Associate Principal Deputy Administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration and has been a career employee at the department since 1987.
Tarak Shah is an energy policy expert who has spent the last decade working on combating climate change. At the Biden-Harris transition, Shah was the personnel lead for the climate and science team.
From 2014-2017, he served as Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary for Science and Energy at the department. Shah has also worked on political campaigns, including President Obama's senate and presidential campaigns.
He had received his undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois and his MBA from Cornell University.
Tanya Das was most recently a professional staff member on the US House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, where she worked on a range of issues in clean energy and manufacturing policy.
She earned her PhD in electrical engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her BS in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Narayan Subramanian was a visiting research fellow at the Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment at Berkeley Law, leading a project tracking regulatory rollbacks, and served as a fellow at the Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy at Johns Hopkins University and Data for Progress.
Subramanian holds a JD from Columbia Law School, an MPA from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, and a BS in earth and environmental engineering from Columbia University.
Shuchi Talati was most recently a Senior Policy Adviser at Carbon180, where she focused on policies to build sustainable and equitable technological carbon removal. She also served as a policy volunteer on the Biden-Harris campaign.
Dr Talati earned a BS from Northwestern University, an MA from Columbia University and a PhD from Carnegie Mellon University.
The Department of Energy said the new leaders will direct policy at the DOE, coordinate across the Administration and enact President Joe Biden's vision for bold action on the climate crisis and on safeguarding the Americans most affected by it.
These experienced professionals reflect President Biden's pledge to equip his Administration with a team that represents America's diversity, it said.
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South African police arrest suspect in mass shooting that killed 12, including 3 children
Johannesburg (AP): A 32-year-old suspect has been arrested in connection with a mass shooting which claimed the lives of 12 people including three children at an unlicensed pub earlier this month, South African police said on Monday.
The man is suspected of being one of the three people who opened fire on patrons in a pub at Saulsville township, west of South Africa's capital Pretoria, killing 12 people including three children aged 3, 12 and 16.
At least 13 people were also injured during the attack, whose motive remains unknown.
According to the police, the suspect was arrested on Sunday while traveling to Botlokwa in Limpopo province, more than 340 km from where the mass shooting took place on Dec 6.
An unlicensed firearm believed to have been used during the attack was recovered from the suspect's vehicle.
“The 32-year-old suspect was intercepted by Limpopo Tracking Team on the R101 Road in Westenburg precinct. During the arrest, the team recovered an unlicensed firearm, a hand gun, believed to have been used in the commission of the multiple murders. The firearm will be taken to the Forensic Science Laboratory for ballistic analysis,” police said in statement.
The suspect was arrested on the same day that another mass shooting at a pub took place in the Bekkersdal township, west of Johannesburg, in which nine people were killed and 10 wounded when unknown gunmen opened fire on patrons.
Police have since launched a search for the suspects.
South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world and recorded more than 26,000 homicides in 2024 — an average of more than 70 a day. Firearms are by far the leading cause of death in homicides.
The country of 62 million people has relatively strict gun ownership laws, but many killings are committed with illegal guns, according to authorities.
According to police, mass shootings at unlicensed bars are becoming a serious problem. Police shut down more than 11,000 illegal taverns between April and September this year and arrested more than 18,000 people for involvement in illegal liquor sales.
