Indian-Americans are taking over the US, President Joe Biden said while congratulating Swati Mohan, the NASA engineer, who guided the Mars rover Perseverance to a soft landing on the Red Planet. “It’s amazing. Indian of descent Americans are taking over this country. You, my Vice President, my speechwriter Vinay. But I tell you what, thanks. You guys are incredible,” he said during a virtual meeting to congratulate Mohan and others on the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) team that landed the Perseverance on Mars.

“One of the reasons why we’re such an incredible country is we’re such a diverse country. We bring the best out of every single solitary culture in the world here in the US of America. And we give people an opportunity,” Biden said of the immigrants. Mohan, who proudly displays her Indian identity with a bindi on her forehead, said: “Being able to work with this incredibly diverse talented team that has become like a family, spending years creating our own technological marvel has been a privilege.”