US honours Indian-Americans as 'Champions of Change'

Washington: Highlighting the achievements of immigrant innovators and entrepreneurs, the White House on Wednesday presented three Indian-Americans with prestigious Champions of Change awards.

The three Indian Americans among the 11 recipients are Shradha Agarwal from Chicago, Riddhiman Das from Kansas, and Amar Sawhney from Massachusetts.

The Indian-Americans and others were felicitated at the "Champions of Change" event at the White House that highlighted immigrant innovators and entrepreneurs - the best and brightest from around the world who are helping create American jobs, grow the economy, and make the US more competitive, an official statement said.

"Immigrants have long made America more prosperous and innovative, and the Champions we are celebrating today represent the very best in leadership, entrepreneurship, and public service," said the US Chief Technology Officer Todd Park.

"We are proud to recognise these leaders who work every day to grow our economy, advance science and technology, and support their home communities," Park said.

The Champions of Change programme was created as an opportunity for the White House to feature groups of Americans - individuals, businesses and organizations - who are doing extraordinary things to empower and inspire members of their communities.

Shradha Agarwal from Chicago is co-founder of ContextMedia and she always had a passion for communication and launched her first media enterprise at age nine in India.

"While building ContextMedia from the ground up, she branded the healthcare media company as "for-benefit"-a successful for-profit enterprise that exists for social benefit-and focused on organizational culture architecture," the White House said.

Based in Chicago and New York City, Agarwal is also an angel investor, conference speaker and startup advisor. Riddhiman Das from Kansas came to the United States in 2008 to pursue an American college education and studied Computer Science, Mathematics and Entrepreneurship.

"As an undergraduate student, he co-founded three startup tech companies and is also heavily involved with a Kansas City-based technology startup that has commercialised the Eyeprint Verification System as a simple, safe replacement for entering passwords on smartphones," the White House said.

An inventor and serial entrepreneur in the field of medical devices, Amar Sawhney holds over 120 patents, which form the basis for several first-of-a-kind medical devices that have helped millions of patients worldwide.

"He has founded six companies, which account for over 1,600 jobs created and over $ 1.5 billion in revenue to date. Amar helps foster entrepreneurship by mentoring young innovators and creating companies through Incept, a medical device incubator he helped co-found," the White House said.