India-born Ebola fighter to watch Obama speech to Congress

Washington, Jan 20: An India-born doctor fighting Ebola in Africa will be among the guests watching President Barack Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday symbolising some of the points he would be making. In an address to a joint session of Congress Obama will lay out an agenda for his seventh year in office in the face of a hostile Republican opposition, which now controls both the House and the Senate. India-born Pranav Shetty, Global Emergency Health Coordinator for International Medical Corps, will join the First Lady in her box as a representative of the thousands of health care workers who were collectively named TIME's person of the year in 2014. The White House described the Medical Corps as a critical partner in the US-supported effort to bring the Ebola epidemic under control in West Africa. Shetty's experience in public health emergencies is invaluable, having responded to crises in Haiti, Libya, South Sudan, Jordan, Iraq, and the Philippines, it said.