OBAMA AMTUMIA MTAALAM WA TEKINOLOJIA MSWAHILI !

US President Barack Obama named Vivek Kundra, a 34-year-old, as the federal chief information officer at the White House to advance the administration's technology agenda.

In a statement announcing Kundra's appointment, Obama said, "I have directed him to work to ensure that we are using the spirit of American innovation and the power of technology to improve performance and lower the cost of government operations."

In his new job, Kundra will direct policy and planning for federal IT investments, according to the White House. The CIO will also be responsible for the disbursal of $80 billion that US federal government agencies spend annually on technology, as well as ensuring information security and privacy across government.

Incidentally, the appointment of Kundra to the Federal post crowns a recent trend in the US, where CTOs in four states have been of Indian origin. Minnesota, Virginia, Alaska and the District of Columbia, all have had Indian Americans as CTOs.

New Delhi-born Kundra formerly served in Washington DC Mayor Adrian Fenty's cabinet as the chief technology officer (CTO) for the capital city, responsible for technology operations and strategy for 86 agencies.

Here, Kundra introduced several popular consumer tools to smoothen bureaucratic processes. He is credited of slashing the city's IT costs by shifting government mail and work applications to Google Apps and bringing in transparency by posting online the lists of jobs that government contractors have been hired to perform. His work earned him a place among the top 25 CTOs in the US and bagged him the title of IT Executive of the Year for 2008.

The 34-year-old has also won recognition for his leadership in public safety communications, cyber security and IT portfolio management. His plans include allowing drivers to pay parking tickets and renew driver's licenses on Facebook.

Kundra has also served as vice president of marketing for identity management specialist Evincible Software and as CEO of Creostar, where he advised clients in government and industry on IT governance and strategy.

Kundra spent large part of his childhood in Tanzania and considers Swahili as his first language. He moved to the US with is parents 23 years ago. He did his Master's of Science in information technology from the University of Maryland.