Nisha Desai Biswal named deputy head of US development finance agency

As America’s point person for South Asia during Obama presidency, Biswal oversaw the US-India strategic partnership bloom

President Joe Biden intends to nominate Indian American policy expert Nisha Desai Biswal as Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), dealing with most critical challenges facing the developing world.

The American finance agency provides loans, loan guarantees, direct equity investments, and political risk insurance for private-sector led development projects, feasibility studies, and technical assistance.

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It invests across several sectors including energy, healthcare, critical infrastructure, and technology, with stated priorities of women’s empowerment, innovation, investment in West Africa and the Western Hemisphere, and climate change.

Biden’s intent to nominate Biswal, who served as Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs from 2013 to 2017 during the Obama administration, was announced by the White House Monday along with six other key posts.

In that job Biswal oversaw the US-India strategic partnership during a period of unprecedented cooperation, including the launch of an annual US-India Strategic and Commercial Dialogue, the White House noted.

Biswal also initiated the C5+1 Dialogue with Central Asia and the US-Bangladesh Partnership Dialogue during her tenure as Assistant Secretary.

Biswal brings over 30 years of experience in US foreign policy and international development programs within the Executive Branch, Congress, and the private sector, according to her official profile.

Currently Biswal is the Senior Vice President for International Strategy and Global Initiatives at the US Chamber of Commerce, overseeing the US India Business Council and US Bangladesh Business Council..

Prior to her stint at the State Department, Biswal was Assistant Administrator for Asia at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), directing and supervising USAID programs and operations across South, Central, and Southeast Asia.

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She has also spent over a decade on Capitol Hill, working as Staff Director on the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee on Appropriations as well as professional staff on the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives.

Biswal serves as the Chair of the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid and is on both the Board of the National Democratic Institute and the US Institute of Peace International Advisory Council.

She is a member of the United States Institute of Peace Afghanistan Study Group and the Aspen Institute’s India-US Track 2 Dialogue on Climate and Energy. Biswal is a proud graduate of the University of Virginia, where she studied International Relations and Economics.