Ramaswamy, with roots in Kerala, joins Trump's A team alongside Musk

As expected, Donal Trump has nominated the Tesla company chief and world's richest man Elon Musk to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The Indian-origin Vivek Ramaswamy, who had previously vied with Donal Trump for the Republican presidential nomination before withdrawing from the contest favouring Trump, will also join the DOGE. 

The US President-elect announced late Tuesday that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the Department of Government Efficiency. In a statement, Trump said: "I am pleased to announce that the Great Elon Musk, working in conjunction with American Patriot Vivek Ramaswamy, will lead the Department of Government Efficiency (“DOGE”).

"Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal aencies –essential to the `Save America' movement.

“This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in government waste, which is a lot of people!”.

Elon Musk, who heads the Tesla electric vehicles company and owns SpaceX and the X social media platform, was expected to take up an important position in Trump's administration during the run-up to the presidential campaign. During the last phase of the campaign, Musk had emerged as the most vocal billionaire celebrity to have supported Trump. 

Vivek Ramaswamy's Kerala connection

Vivek Ganapathy Ramaswamy is a politician and entrepreneur who founded Roivant Sciences, a pharmaceutical company, in 2014. In February 2023, Ramaswamy declared his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination in the 2024 United States presidential election. Vivek Ganapathy Ramaswamy was born on August 9, 1985, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Indian Hindu immigrant parents.

His Tamil-speaking were from Kerala's Palakkad district. His father, V. Ganapathy Ramaswamy, a graduate of the National Institute of Technology Calicut, worked as an engineer and patent attorney for General Electric, while his mother, Geetha Ramaswamy, a graduate of the Mysore Medical College & Research Institute, worked as a geriatric psychiatrist. Vivek's parents immigrated from Palakkad district in Kerala where the family had an ancestral home in a traditional agraharam in the town of Vadakkencherry.

Ramaswamy was born in Cincinnati to Indian immigrant parents. He graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in biology and later earned a degree from Yale Law School. Ramaswamy worked as an investment partner at a hedge fund before founding Roivant Sciences. He also co-founded an investment firm, Strive Asset Management.