Washington, DC (HT Media): Gita Gopinath, a Delhi School of Economics alumnus, has been named professor of economics at Harvard University, becoming the first Indian-origin woman professor in the institution's history.
Kolkata born Gopinath, 38, is considered an authority on business cycles in emerging markets and on price fluctuations across international borders. She was previously associate professor of economics at Harvard, where she has been a member of the faculty since 2005.

The US police have arrested three persons on charges of killing an Indian student at Bridgeport in Connecticut early this month even as his university has announced a memorial service in his honour. Arun Kumar Narote, 26, an MS student of the Stratford University was shot dead at a grocery store at Bridgeport on July 14 despite offering no resistance and fully cooperating with his assailants' demands. He worked there as a clerk.

Emerging Indian American political star Nikki Haley has made it to the cover of Newsweek with a story on her transformation from "obscure state representative" to front runner in South Carolina governor's race. The magazine recounts how an "earthy, attractive, articulate" and the Republican Party's "newest star in a fast-changing South," Haley "proceeded to dispatch a US
congressman, the lieutenant governor, and the attorney general in the Republican primary and runoff."

An Indian student in Stratford University in Connecticut was shot dead by unidentified assailants in a suspected robbery case. Arun Kumar Narote, who hails from Hyderabad, was gunned down yesterday at a grocery store at Bridgeport in Connecticut where he was working as a part-time employee. The incident ened around 9:30 pm (local time). Police are investigating the case.

Kumar was pursuing MSc in software engineering after graduating from the Indira Reddy Memorial Engineering college in Hyderabad.

Indian professionals working in the US, Australia, Canada and Japan may soon be exempted from paying social security contribution in those countries if they make such payments in India. The benefit will be available under social security pacts that the Government is negotiating with these countries. The agreement will also ensure orderly migration of workforce to and fro and provide for cooperation in areas of labour market expansion.

US prosecutors have alleged that an Indian American supporter of Democratic Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr told him he would raise $1 million in return for then Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich naming Jackson to the Senate. The allegation, made on July 8 during Blagojevich's federal corruption trial in Chicago, was the first time prosecutors publicly suggested Jackson, son of civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, was aware of efforts by his allies to swap campaign cash for his appointment to the Senate seat vacated by then President-elect Barack Obama.