The US President Barack Obama officially named Vivek Kundra for the newly-created post of Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO) on March 5, 2009.

Mr. Kundra, who was working as head of technology for Washington DC, will work alongside with President Barack Obama's Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

Mr. Kundra's job will be to decide which technologies will be good for Obama administration and how they will be deployed. He will decide on the broad use of technologies, such as the technologies that President Obama's campaign team used during the US elections. He will get nearly $70bn (£49bn) budget to carry on his works.

In his announcement, President Obama said, "The goal of the CIO is to work to ensure that we are using the spirit of American innovation and the power of technology to improve performance and lower the cost of government operations, As chief information officer, he will play a key role in making sure our government is running in the most secure, open, and efficient way possible."

In a statement about Mr. Kundra's appointment President Obama said, "I have directed him to work to ensure that we are using the spirit of American innovation and the power of technology to improve performance and lower the cost of government operations."

Mr. Kundra, born in New Delhi, India, grew up in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Graduate of the University of Virginia's Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership, Kundra did a degree in psychology and a master's degree in IT from the University of Maryland. Currently as head of technology for Washington DC, Kundra advocated the use of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for administrators to communicate with citizens.

Speaking after his appointment, Mr. Kundra stated that "the US has the ability to run an open, transparent, participatory and collaborative government." He said that he would explore how government could use so-called "cloud computing" which would involve much greater reliance on web-based resources. He stated that he has planned to develop a data. gov website, which will help US citizens to get much easier access to official statistics and other government information.