Washington, United States:
Weeks after US President Donald Trump took office, billionaire Elon Musk who leads the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has taken a deep dive into the federal administrative apparatus. DOGE, which hired a team of some young engineers, has access to the country’s sensitive information at agencies like the Treasury Department – which has temporarily blocked access to the team, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Among the team members, an Indian-origin engineer, Nikhil Rajpal, reportedly has key government access by representing DOGE’s task force at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Who is Nikhil Rajpal?
According to a report by WIRED, Mr Rajpal has working email addresses with both DOGE and the NOAA. He also appears in the NOAA’s public-facing employee directory, it said. He was reportedly given editor access to all NOAA Google sites on instructions of the acting commerce secretary, Jeremy Pelter.
Mr Rajpal, who refers to himself as ‘Nik’, is around 30 years old and has studied computer science and history at UC Berkeley, the report said. As an undergraduate, Mr Rajpal was reportedly the leader of a libertarian-aligned student group advocating for “minimal government, free markets, sound money, non-intervention, and maximum individual liberty.”
The report mentioned that Mr Rajpal worked at Twitter before Mr Musk acquired it. Before that, he redesigned a Tesla console.
The DOGE employee’s presence on social media appears to be wiped out.
Another report by ProPublica said that Mr Rajpal is also listed as an “expert” working for OPM.
Mr Musk reportedly hired a team of six young engineers, some barely out of college, at DOGE. The team, aged between 19 and 24, includes Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran. Some are fresh out of college, while one is reportedly still a student. Among them is another Indian-origin Akash Bobba – who is also listed as an “expert” at the OPM. He is reporting directly to Amanda Scales, DOGE’s new chief of staff and a former talent acquisition lead at xAI and Uber.
Akash Bobba reportedly has an active General Services Administration (GSA) email and A-suite level clearance, giving him access to all physical spaces and IT systems at the GSA, reported WIRED.