Washington, Dec 8 (IANS): President Barack Obama has named Indian-American, Preeta D. Bansal, as a member of an independent agency promoting improvements in the efficiency, adequacy, and fairness of government procedures

"I am proud to appoint such impressive individuals to these important roles, and I am grateful they have agreed to lend their considerable talents to this Administration," he said naming two members of the Advisory Council of the Administrative Conference of the US.

"I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead."

Bansal joins over two dozen Indian-Americans serving the Obama administration in high places. By far the highest ranking Indian-American in any presidential administration is USAID administrator Rajiv Shah.

As the General Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor for the Office of Management and Budget from 2009 to 2011, Bansal was also a government member of the Council, serving as vice chair from 2010 until 2011.

A Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Bansal was a partner and head of the Appellate Litigation Practice at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, LLP, in New York City, prior to joining the Obama Administration.

She is the former solicitor general of the State of New York and a former law clerk to US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.

From 2003 to 2009, while in private law practice, Bansal also was a commissioner of the bipartisan US Commission on International Religious Freedom, serving as its Chair from 2004 to 2005.

Bansal received a J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School and an A.B., magna cum laude, from Harvard-Radcliffe College.