Kashmiri-origin Sameera Fazili on Team Biden

Srinagar, January 16

Kashmiri-origin Sameera Fazili’s parents wanted her to be a physician, but she was not quite in agreement. Fazili’s plans fructified on Friday when the Biden-Harris Transition named her deputy director of the National Economic Council at the White House.

The council coordinates the economic policy-making process and provides advice to the US president.

Fazili is the second Kashmiri-origin Indian-American appointed to a key position in the incoming Biden administration. Her appointment has sparked off jubilations in her extended family in Srinagar.

“It is a proud moment for the entire Kashmir,” her uncle Rouf Fazili said. “She was not born here and her parents left the Valley in 1970-71, but she has a strong affinity with Kashmir,” he said. The last time she visited the Valley was in 2007. Currently the economic agency lead on the Biden-Harris Transition, she was earlier posted at Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. — PTI