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Vivek Kundra: the CIO who admires Gandhiji

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CIOL Bureau
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Vivek KundraBANGALORE, INDIA: The young Indian who admires Mahatma Gandhi as one of the most potent political forces in the last century. A young man who loves reading 'Great Expectations' by Charles Dickens and enjoy watching Amitabh Bachchan-starrer 'Sholay'.

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A young professional who began his career as a telemarketeer and went on to become the Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Technology in Virginia to the Chief Technology Officer for the District of Columbia and now the first-ever CIO of the US government, Vivek Kundra has a tale of hard work that helped him conquer new heights.

And it is his devotion towards work that made this 34-year-old Indian American mark his identity in the Obama administration.

As the Chief Information Officer of US President Barack Obama, Vivek says one of his first projects is to create a data.gov Web site to "democratize" the federal government's vast information treasures by making them accessible in open formats and in feeds that can be used by application developers.

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He wants to act aggressively to change the federal government's use of IT by adopting consumer technology and ensuring that government data is open and accessible.

In his first conference call on Thursday, after being appointed the CIO, Vivek clearly expressed his ambition to "revolutionize technology in the public sector”.

"How can we leverage the power of technology to make sure the country is moving in the right direction?" he asked.

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Vivek also believes that the government should move away from its dependence on big IT contracts.

Born in New Delhi, Vivek moved to Tanzania when he still a toddler and lived there for nearly a decade before moving to Gaithersburg, Maryland, MD, USA.

If you ask Vivek, with which living legend he would like have dinner with, he would say it's Bill Gates. “In 30 years he not only created a whole new industry, but is transforming public health and education. From global health to education he is successfully tackling some of the world's toughest problems,” observes the man who lives technology and loves Gandhiji.

And he believes in the policy of 'free yourself to do the right thing'.

Then, here is this small surprise that the US CIO would be interested to share with you. That, his first language was not English or Hindi but it was Swahili, the language spoken in many parts of Eastern Africa!

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