Economic Contributions of Asian Indian Minnesotans

Bruce P. Corrie, PhD corrie@csp.edu The Asian Indian population is in the range of 30,000 according to Census 2000 and have a significant impact on the Minnesota economy: An immigrant community with buying power of nearly half a billion dollars. In suburbs like Eden Prairie, Asian Indian buying power is 20 million dollars. 97 percent receive no public assistance but pay over 5 million in real estate taxes and over 2 million in rental payments. In 1997 there was an estimated 961 Asian Indian firms in Minnesota with 670 million dollars in sale employing over 6000 people. 72 percent of the Asian Indian workforce are in management and professional occupations. Among the occupations with a strong Asian Indian presence are computer and health related occupations as well as the social sciences. Asian Indians have high human capital with 74 percent having a Bachelor’s degree or higher educational qualifications. In Minnesota the Asian Indian influence cuts across many sectors as can be seen in the list below:

POLITICS

State Senator Satveer Chaudhary (DFL)

Gopal Khanna, Governor’s Cabinet (GOP)

BUSINESS/Management

Mahendra Nath, MN Business Hall of Fame

Kay Kuba, Top 100 Women owned Business

Prakash Puram, National Export Council

Frank Moneteiro, SBA Small Business Award

Rajiv Tandon, Rajeo Dhar, KC Sukumar, Daljt Sikha, Satya Garg, Bennet Cyrus, Anil Khurana, Vinod Kumar, Paul Kuttikadan, Ben Kurian , Nita Singh. Top MN Companies

Marthand Noorkala, Senior Mgmt, MnDOT

Bruce Corrie, Chair, Governors Working Group on Minority Business Dev (Ventura).

Vijay Sood, Senior VP, General Mills

Jesse Singh, Division VP, 3M

Basant Kharbanda, owner Foshay Towers

V V Chari, Advisor to Federal Reserve Bank

Aks Zaheer, Carlson School of Management

MEDIA

Fred de Sam Lazaro, NewHour Lehrer, PBS

Vineeta Sawkar, New anchor, KSTP

Neal Justin, Star Tribune and AAJA

Geeta Sitamariah, Pioneer Press

Mukthar Thakur, Sarjit Bains, Shashi Gupta, Sangam Radio and Geetmala TV

COMMUNITY

Rev. Cherian Puthiyottil, Rev. Andrade, Rev. Thoomkuzy, Rev. Thelakatt, Pastors

Mukhtar Thakur, State Council on APA

Dilip Mallick, Vice Chair, Dragon Festival

Shashi Gupta, Bhupat Desai, Bruce Corrie, Asian Pacific Fund, Saint Paul Foundation

Ram Gada, Minnesota Historical Society

Hyder Khan, MN Advocates Human Rights

Bhupat Desai, Ananth Shankar, Dilip Mallick, Sarjit Bains, Bruce Corrie (Chair), The Policy Roundtable

Rowzat Shipchandler, Saint Paul Foundation

SCIENCE/HEALTH/Technology

Sumita Mitra, Gaddam Babu, Ashok Nangia, 3M Corporate Scientist

Vibhu Kshettry, Minneapolis Heart Institute

Ramesh Harjani, Jaideep Srivastava, Shashi Shekhar, Vipin Kumar, High Tech Innovators

Krishna Saxena, Shashi Sane, Children’s Hospital

CULTURE

Ranee Ramaswamy, Ragamala Theatre

Rita Mustafi, Katha Dance Theater

Dipankar Mukerjee, Meena Natarajan, Pangea Theatre

Shivanthi Sathanandan, India MusicSociety

Raj Menon, Godan & Guptan Nambodiripad, Preeti Mathur, Neena Gada, Rabinder Bains

SILC, COMMUNITY

Raghavan Iyer, Indian Cusine