[Reader-list] FINANCE: Neel Kashkari/MBA, Soft Drink, Electric Car, Kashmir

[Naeem Mohaiemen]

The folks at South Asian Journalists Association (New York) have
rounded up coverage of Neel Kashkari, head of $700B bailout plan, in
US media, and here are some brief excerpts.


1. NYT: "Bailout Role Elevates U.S. Official" by Charlie Savage and Ben White:
Samuel L. Hayes, an emeritus professor of finance at Harvard Business
School, said Mr. Kashkari will face tremendous pressures. "It's
amazing to me that a guy who is only six years out of business school
has been given this kind of assignment, because it would be an
enormous challenge for someone with 30 years of experience," Mr. Hayes
said.


2. WSJ blogger Heidi N. Moore's post, "What Neel Kashkari Learned in
MBA School":
Since 2006, Kashkari has been one of Paulson's regular advisers,
sharing with his mentor a hairstyle, Midwestern roots, a Goldman
alumni card and even the same taste in popular soft drinks.


3. "Morning Edition" profile on NPR by Yuki Naguchi:
Back in the 1990s, Tom Dautel worked on a team led by Kashkari to
design a solar car called the Photon Torpedo at the University of
Illinois. He says Kashkari worked like a slave, often even on projects
he wasn't directly overseeing.


4. Gilbert Cruz's "Two-minute Bio" of Kashkari in Time.com:
"When he does anything, if you ask him to make an electric car or ask
him to plan an outing to Niagara Falls, he is so meticulous."—Chaman
Kashkari, father, USA Today, October 6, 2008

"I'm a free-market Republican."—Kashkari, at an American Enterprise
Institute conference, Sept. 19, 2008


5. "Rakesh Kaul, a leader in the Kashmiri-American community and
chairman of Spherenomics (he knows the Kashkari family)" on SAJAForum:
"I view Neel's appointment in some ways as even more important than
the signing of the Nuclear deal. It is the final rubber stamp of how
our Indo-American community has achieved acceptance at the highest and
most critical positions in the land. If there is a change in
administration then we should think long and hard and see if Indians
on both the Democratic and Republican side, in a spirit of
bipartisanship, can ensure that he has the support to continue in his
job."

"Interestingly the name Neel means the color blue but also it stands
for the blue sapphire in Sanskrit and as your readers may well know
the best sapphires in the world came from Kashmir. Finally as a
postscript. To all the Kashmiri Pandits who have been ethnically
cleansed from their land and are suffering either in refugee camps or
have been scattered into environments that are below their dignity and
human potential. Neel is one inspiring story that took two generations
from Kashmir to the US to happen but there will be many others. We
will return back to our homeland from a position of strength, a
strength founded on a 5,000-year culture that can produce a Neel, a
Jawahar, an Abhinav Gupta, a Kalidas and many more!"

And finally a photo:
http://sajablogs.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/10/07/photo_100608_001_2.jpg