India's loss, America's gain

[back me up]

Imported From India

What is America's most valuable import from India? It may very well be brainpower.

Hundreds of thousands of well-educated Indians have come to the U.S. in recent decades - many to work in the computer and software industries.

The best and brainiest among them seem to share a common credential: They're graduates of the Indian Institute of Technology, better known as IIT.

IIT has seven campuses throughout the country, and as we discovered when we traveled there last year, its students consider themselves the luckiest people in India. Correspondent Lesley Stahl reports on this story which first aired March 2, 2003.

Put Harvard, MIT and Princeton together, and you begin to get an idea of the status of IIT in India.

IIT is dedicated to producing world-class chemical, electrical and computer engineers with a curriculum that may be the most rigorous in the world.

Just outside the campus gates, the slums, congestion and chaos of Bombay are overwhelming.

But inside, it's quiet and uncrowded and, by Indian standards, very well equipped. Getting here is the fervent dream of nearly every student.

With a population of over a billion people in India, competition to get into
the IITs is ferocious. Last year, 178,000 high school seniors took the entrance exam called the JEE. Just over 3,500 were accepted, or less than two percent.

Compare that with Harvard, which accepts about 10 percent of its applicants.

“The IITs probably are the hardest school in the world to get into, to the best of my knowledge,” says Vinod Khosla, who got into IIT about 30 years ago.

After graduating, Khosla came to the U.S., co-founded Sun Microsystems and became one of Silicon Valley's most important venture capitalists. He's one of thousands of IIT graduates who have made it big in the U.S.

“Microsoft, Intel, PCs, Sun Microsystems -- you name it, I can't imagine a major area where Indian IIT engineers haven't played a leading role,” says Khosla.

“And, of course, the American consumer and the American business in the end is the beneficiary of that.”

It isn't just high tech. The head of the giant consulting firm McKinsey & Company is an IIT grad. So is the vice chairman of Citigroup and the former CEO of US Airways. Fortune 500 headhunters are always on the lookout for that IIT degree.

“They are favored over almost anybody else. If you're a WASP walking in for a job, you wouldn't have as much pre-assigned credibility as you do if you're an engineer from IIT,” says Khosla.

Ninety percent of IIT students are male, and the young men we met in Bombay know they're hot commodities.

Plus, the American companies love the kids from IIT. And the students view it as a ticket to another way of life.

Em Rahm, one of India's leading journalists, says that because the stakes are so high, a kid starts preparing early.

“By 10, you know whether you've made it--you're made for it or not,” he says.

But just standing out in school won't be enough. At about 16, students enroll in a prep class where they're drilled for the IIT entrance exam. There are even pre-dawn tutoring classes – before they go to school.

“I normally stay up all night and study for my exams,” says one student.

After years of preparation, students reach the day they and their families believe will make or break the future finally arrives.

“On the day of the exam, my dad, my mom and my younger brother -- they all accompanied me to the center,” says one student. “I said, 'OK, now you
can leave. I'll come home on my own.' But I was literally amazed when I came back out of the center and see my parents and brother still waiting for me outside the center.”

After six hours of testing, there’s an excruciating month-long wait for the results.

Results are posted on the Web. And after 10 days, students receive a letter. Top rankers get their photographs in the paper.

But the ranking isn't just an ego trip. The top kids get to choose which campus they want and which major.

“It's a big deal in India, it is,” says Narayana Murthy, founder of the huge software company Infosys. He’s known as the Bill Gates of India.

“It's very easy to lose hope in this country. It's very easy to set your aspirations low in this country. But amidst all this, this competition
among high-quality students, this institution of IIT, sets your aspirations much higher.”

Murthy’s own son, who wanted to do computer science at IIT, couldn’t get in. He went to Cornell, instead. Imagine a kid from India using an American Ivy League university as a safety school. That's how smart these guys are.

“I do know cases where students who couldn't get into computer science at IITs, they have gotten scholarship at MIT, at Princeton, at Caltech,” says Murthy.

“When I finished IIT Delhi and went to Carnegie Mellon for my
master's, I thought I was cruising all the way through Carnegie Mellon
because it was so easy, relative to the education I had gotten at IIT Delhi,” says Khosla.

Students act like entrepreneurs the whole time they're at IIT. They run everything in the dorms, which might be mistaken for cell blocks if not for all the Pentium 4 PCs. They organize the sports themselves. They even hire the chefs and pick the food in the mess halls.

And unlike so many other institutions in India, they all know they're here because they deserve to be here.

“There is no corruption. It's a pure meritocracy,” says Murthy.

IIT may also be one of the best educational bargains in the world. It costs a family just about $700 a year for room, board and tuition. That's less than 20 percent of the true cost since the Indian government subsidizes all the rest.

While some IIT grads stay and have helped build India's flourishing high-tech sector, almost two-thirds--up to 2,000 people--leave every year, most for the U.S.

“Some people would say you're subsidizing factories, which produce
largely for the higher end of the American employment market,” says Rahm.

“You don't have to be crudely nationalistic to raise this question. There's a need here. There's a demand here, and these guys are simply not
available.”

How many of them ever come back?

“Very small percentage, but my view is that we also have to work harder here to make it attractive for them to come back,” says Murthy.

And Murthy is doing his part. His software company, Infosys, hires about 150 IIT graduates every year to stay and work in India. He says the brain-drain doesn't worry him.

“Some of these people who have reached the higher echelons in the corporate world in the U.S., you know, they have persuaded their corporations to start operations in India, whether it's Texas Instruments, whether it's General Electric, whether it's Citibank,” says Murthy.

“I have no question that India now is benefiting significantly from the cycling of knowledge, the back and forth, no question about it,” says Khosla.

And individual IIT grads are sending lots of money back home, too, but the U.S. still gets the better end of the bargain.

“How many jobs have entrepreneurs, Indian entrepreneurs, in Silicon Valley created over the last 15, 20 years? Hundreds of thousands, I would
guess,” says Khosla.

“For America to be able to pick off this human capital, these well-trained engineers with great minds, it's a great deal.”

 

[Dr sim]

Imported From India

What is America's most valuable import from India? It may very well be brainpower.

Hundreds of thousands of well-educated Indians have come to the U.S. in recent decades - many to work in the computer and software industries.

The best and brainiest among them seem to share a common credential: They're graduates of the Indian Institute of Technology, better known as IIT.

IIT has seven campuses throughout the country, and as we discovered when we traveled there last year, its students consider themselves the luckiest people in India. Correspondent Lesley Stahl reports on this story which first aired March 2, 2003.

Put Harvard, MIT and Princeton together, and you begin to get an idea of the status of IIT in India.

IIT is dedicated to producing world-class chemical, electrical and computer engineers with a curriculum that may be the most rigorous in the world.

Just outside the campus gates, the slums, congestion and chaos of Bombay are overwhelming.

But inside, it's quiet and uncrowded and, by Indian standards, very well equipped. Getting here is the fervent dream of nearly every student.

With a population of over a billion people in India, competition to get into
the IITs is ferocious. Last year, 178,000 high school seniors took the entrance exam called the JEE. Just over 3,500 were accepted, or less than two percent.

Compare that with Harvard, which accepts about 10 percent of its applicants.

“The IITs probably are the hardest school in the world to get into, to the best of my knowledge,” says Vinod Khosla, who got into IIT about 30 years ago.

After graduating, Khosla came to the U.S., co-founded Sun Microsystems and became one of Silicon Valley's most important venture capitalists. He's one of thousands of IIT graduates who have made it big in the U.S.

“Microsoft, Intel, PCs, Sun Microsystems -- you name it, I can't imagine a major area where Indian IIT engineers haven't played a leading role,” says Khosla.

“And, of course, the American consumer and the American business in the end is the beneficiary of that.”

It isn't just high tech. The head of the giant consulting firm McKinsey & Company is an IIT grad. So is the vice chairman of Citigroup and the former CEO of US Airways. Fortune 500 headhunters are always on the lookout for that IIT degree.

“They are favored over almost anybody else. If you're a WASP walking in for a job, you wouldn't have as much pre-assigned credibility as you do if you're an engineer from IIT,” says Khosla.

Ninety percent of IIT students are male, and the young men we met in Bombay know they're hot commodities.

Plus, the American companies love the kids from IIT. And the students view it as a ticket to another way of life.

Em Rahm, one of India's leading journalists, says that because the stakes are so high, a kid starts preparing early.

“By 10, you know whether you've made it--you're made for it or not,” he says.

But just standing out in school won't be enough. At about 16, students enroll in a prep class where they're drilled for the IIT entrance exam. There are even pre-dawn tutoring classes – before they go to school.

“I normally stay up all night and study for my exams,” says one student.

After years of preparation, students reach the day they and their families believe will make or break the future finally arrives.

“On the day of the exam, my dad, my mom and my younger brother -- they all accompanied me to the center,” says one student. “I said, 'OK, now you
can leave. I'll come home on my own.' But I was literally amazed when I came back out of the center and see my parents and brother still waiting for me outside the center.”

After six hours of testing, there’s an excruciating month-long wait for the results.

Results are posted on the Web. And after 10 days, students receive a letter. Top rankers get their photographs in the paper.

But the ranking isn't just an ego trip. The top kids get to choose which campus they want and which major.

“It's a big deal in India, it is,” says Narayana Murthy, founder of the huge software company Infosys. He’s known as the Bill Gates of India.

“It's very easy to lose hope in this country. It's very easy to set your aspirations low in this country. But amidst all this, this competition
among high-quality students, this institution of IIT, sets your aspirations much higher.”

Murthy’s own son, who wanted to do computer science at IIT, couldn’t get in. He went to Cornell, instead. Imagine a kid from India using an American Ivy League university as a safety school. That's how smart these guys are.

“I do know cases where students who couldn't get into computer science at IITs, they have gotten scholarship at MIT, at Princeton, at Caltech,” says Murthy.

“When I finished IIT Delhi and went to Carnegie Mellon for my
master's, I thought I was cruising all the way through Carnegie Mellon
because it was so easy, relative to the education I had gotten at IIT Delhi,” says Khosla.

Students act like entrepreneurs the whole time they're at IIT. They run everything in the dorms, which might be mistaken for cell blocks if not for all the Pentium 4 PCs. They organize the sports themselves. They even hire the chefs and pick the food in the mess halls.

And unlike so many other institutions in India, they all know they're here because they deserve to be here.

“There is no corruption. It's a pure meritocracy,” says Murthy.

IIT may also be one of the best educational bargains in the world. It costs a family just about $700 a year for room, board and tuition. That's less than 20 percent of the true cost since the Indian government subsidizes all the rest.

While some IIT grads stay and have helped build India's flourishing high-tech sector, almost two-thirds--up to 2,000 people--leave every year, most for the U.S.

“Some people would say you're subsidizing factories, which produce
largely for the higher end of the American employment market,” says Rahm.

“You don't have to be crudely nationalistic to raise this question. There's a need here. There's a demand here, and these guys are simply not
available.”

How many of them ever come back?

“Very small percentage, but my view is that we also have to work harder here to make it attractive for them to come back,” says Murthy.

And Murthy is doing his part. His software company, Infosys, hires about 150 IIT graduates every year to stay and work in India. He says the brain-drain doesn't worry him.

“Some of these people who have reached the higher echelons in the corporate world in the U.S., you know, they have persuaded their corporations to start operations in India, whether it's Texas Instruments, whether it's General Electric, whether it's Citibank,” says Murthy.

“I have no question that India now is benefiting significantly from the cycling of knowledge, the back and forth, no question about it,” says Khosla.

And individual IIT grads are sending lots of money back home, too, but the U.S. still gets the better end of the bargain.

“How many jobs have entrepreneurs, Indian entrepreneurs, in Silicon Valley created over the last 15, 20 years? Hundreds of thousands, I would
guess,” says Khosla.

“For America to be able to pick off this human capital, these well-trained engineers with great minds, it's a great deal.”

 

[back me up]

H. Res. 227

In the House of Representatives, U.S.,

April 26, 2005.
Whereas the United States is deeply enriched by its Indian American residents;

Whereas the Indian American community and the graduates of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) in the United States have made valuable and significant contributions to society in every profession and discipline; and

Whereas IIT graduates are highly committed and dedicated to research, innovation, and promotion of trade and international cooperation between India and the United States: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) recognizes the valuable and significant contributions of Indian Americans to American society;
(2) honors the economic innovation attributable to graduates of the Indian Institutes of Technology; and
(3) urges all Americans to recognize the contributions of Indian Americans and have a greater appreciation of the role Indian Americans have played in helping to advance and enrich American society.
Attest:

 

[back me up]

greedy iit bastards

choosing money over motherland

 

[Donatello]

greedy iit bastards

choosing money over motherland

Everyone has a right to choose to the best for themselves and their family. This is one thing that makes it easy to get money in western world, a problem where India stands shoulder to shoulder with Pakistan.

People just don't want to do work in difficult conditions. Those who have the luxury of being rich through family riches always come back. People who form the middle class do not because what do they get? Power shortages, lack of Police security and abuse of power by those with with money, bribes etc.

I myself study in the US and one day would like to go back to my homeland and help, but there are so many who will never go back. Its just once you get money and it's luxuries, you are unwilling to go back.

 

[CardSharp]

greedy iit bastards

choosing money over motherland

It may not even be a case of greed but rather their perspective countries offer a professional environment that their home countries cannot match. (ps I was only a kid when I came to canada, and there weren't much brains to drain)

 

[back me up]

Everyone has a right to choose to the best for themselves and their family. This is one thing that makes it easy to get money in western world, a problem where India stands shoulder to shoulder with Pakistan.

People just don't want to do work in difficult conditions. Those who have the luxury of being rich through family riches always come back. People who form the middle class do not because what do they get? Power shortages, lack of Police security and abuse of power by those with with money, bribes etc.

I myself study in the US and one day would like to go back to my homeland and help, but there are so many who will never go back. Its just once you get money and it's luxuries, you are unwilling to go back.

LINK: India has highest pay increase globally


with this kind of changes happening in india, u expect these people to to have at least some restraint

 

[Cow(ard)Boy]

Times are changing.Indian IT centers have already been declared best in the world by many global leaders.
There are more Americans working in Infosys than from any other country ,of course except India.
_____

Where once the brains of India left for more lucrative pastures in the United States, today a handful of fresh American college graduates are sampling the fruits of the Indian economic boom.

The recruits from America and elsewhere are not expected to fill the looming labor pinch. But they do illustrate the efforts by Indian companies to extend their global reach and recognition.

David Craig, 23, is one of the new American imports. He had never left home in Tucson when the Indian outsourcing giant Infosys Technologies came calling at a job fair earlier this year at the University of Arizona, where he was majoring in engineering management.

Encouragement came from his career adviser, who, as it turned out, had just bought Infosys stock. Stinging reproach came from his uncle: Why, he wanted to know, would Mr. Craig want to work for an Indian company that might take jobs away from other Americans?

In the end, tucking away his apprehensions, Mr. Craig took the plunge. International experience, he decided, would look good on his résumé. And Infosys would put him through a six-month training course on its campus here in southern India before dispatching him to its development center in Phoenix. Mr. Craig would be one of its American faces.

Infosys is not alone in its quest to draw talent from abroad. A handful of other Indian companies are also making an effort to add foreign faces and accents to their rolls, though it is hardly a flood.

Only a small handful of Americans and others have been wooed by Indian companies so far.

Infosys, for instance, has just 126 in its first batch of American trainees this year.

Roughly one in 10 of the 72,000 employees of Tata Consultancy Services, India’s largest software firm, are foreigners. Many trained here before being sent back to one of the 35 countries where it has operations.

Air Deccan, the country’s second largest carrier, is growing so fast that it simply cannot find sufficient numbers of trained Indian professionals; nearly a quarter of its pilots come from abroad.

For the job seekers, India represents a new kind of ticket. Katrina Anderson, 22, a math major from Manhattan, Kan., accepted the Infosys offer because, she said, it provided the most extensive training of any company that offered her a job.

An added bonus was the chance to travel halfway around the world. “Some people were scared by the India relocation,” she recalled. “But that pretty much sold it for me.”

When she finishes the training in January, Ms. Anderson, a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, will return to the United States, to work in the Infosys office in Phoenix.

For the Americans at Infosys, culture shock combines with surprising discoveries. Mr. Craig and Ms. Anderson admitted to having their stereotypes of India quickly upturned. Mr. Craig expected elephants and crowded sidewalks; Ms. Anderson expected stifling heat and women who covered their heads.

The Infosys training center, with its 300 acres of manicured shrubbery, is a far cry from the poverty of much of this country. There is a bowling alley on campus, a state-of-the-art gym, a swimming pool, tennis courts and an auditorium modeled on the Epcot Center.

Mr. Craig, who still calls home nearly every day, says he has made an effort to teach himself a few things about his new, temporary home. He has learned how to conduct himself properly at a Hindu temple. He makes an extra effort to be more courteous. He has learned to ignore the things that rattle him in India — the habit of cutting in line, for instance, or the ease with which a stranger here can ask what he would consider a deeply personal question.

“I definitely feel like a minority here,” he said, sounding surprised at the very possibility.

Ms. Anderson has tried to ignore what she sees as a penchant for staring, especially by men. She has donned Indian clothes in hopes of deflecting attention, only to realize that it has the opposite effect. She has stopped brooding quietly when someone cuts in line. “I say, ‘Excuse me, there’s a line here.’ ”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/world/asia/17expats.html

Infosys to replace Indians by Americans - SiliconIndia
___
Migration to countries like USA,uk, canada etc. have decreased drastically.
But yes i hold a big big grudge against those who can't serve their motherland.(Not being particular about any one)

 

[Cow(ard)Boy]

Following the high-tech outsourcing boom, many American expatriates are making the move to Bangalore for work. Aside from steady employment, such relocation offers a variety of privileges - and the experience of a lifetime.
The Leela Palace hotel sprawls over nine acres of lush gardens, an extravagant structure of gold-leaf domes and ornate ceilings. On Sundays, the hotel's Citrus restaurant serves its "Grand Sunday Brunch Buffet" smorgasbord of international cuisines and gourmet desserts. A feast fit for visiting royalty. Except the people waiting 30 minutes in line are definitely not royalty. They look more like high-tech workers. Which, in fact, they are.

Each Sunday, the Leela brunch attracts a crowd of expatriates from all over the world: America, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Australia, Japan, Germany, Brazil. Most have followed the high-tech outsourcing boom here, chasing jobs that are disappearing in their home countries. Aside from steady employment, such relocation has other privileges. An IT employee can't begin to afford such luxuries back home. But in Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India, it's perfectly normal to wake up after a night of discos and enjoy a four-hour feast at a five-star hotel. And that's a typical weekend for Jeffrey Vanderwerf.

The 28-year-old American moved here last September to work for Microsoft as a communications trainer, helping call-center staff improve their English and phone skills. Call a customer-support line, and you'll likely be speaking with one of his students. Vanderwerf knows outsourcing to India is a contentious subject, but it's been directly beneficial to him and has given him his job. In a sense, he has outsourced himself.

Jeffrey Vanderwerf | High-tech Outsourcing Boom | Bangalore | Leela Palace :: American Way Magazine


_______

Americans make reverse commute to India - Nightly News - msnbc.com

 

[Cow(ard)Boy]

Whats even more advantageous for India is:

After graduating from Northwestern University last year, Nate Linkon contemplated job offers in Chicago and New York. But he chose a less conventional path and started his career here, in India’s booming tech capital.

The 22-year-old Milwaukee native works in marketing at Infosys Technologies Ltd., India’s second-largest software exporter. He’s part of a small but growing number of young Americans moving to Bangalore and other Indian cities to beef up their resumes, launch businesses or study globalization in one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

Despite the traffic-choked streets, unsteady electrical supply, occasional digestive troubles and other daily frustrations of life in India, Linkon has no regrets.

“Moving to Bangalore has been the best decision of my life,” Linkon said. “Asia will only become more significant to the global economy, and having this background is invaluable.”

Nearly 800 Americans are working or interning at information technology companies in India, and the number is expected to grow, according to India’s National Association of Software and Services Companies, or Nasscom.

India’s economy has averaged 8 percent growth over the past three years, driven by the rapid expansion of its software, IT and business-process outsourcing industries. President Bush’s recent visit to India underscores the strengthening economic and political ties between the two countries.

India’s economy still trails China’s in size and growth rate. But unlike China, English is widely spoken in India, making its culture and career opportunities more accessible to foreign workers.

 

[(o_O)]

greedy iit bastards

choosing money over motherland

dont you feel patronism is bit over rated.does a guy earning 40 rupees a day really care for that and what right you have to point fingers at others
you are talking as if you live and die for india.
india has itself to blame.
engineers join DRDO only because it looks on good on the resume while applying for multinational company.it has got to be one the most stagnant research center in the world, its achievements does surprise me
the system should be privatized or form some kind of PPP .

 

[Cow(ard)Boy]

YouTube - Documentary on IIT 1

This is embarassing,Nehru created IIT to train people to serve their nation and race it to the top of the world.But some think only of themselves.
I myself know many IITans who are fully devoted to serve and working in their motherland.
There are some rare cases,in which people want to migrate to other nations,while their own country provides them Big big money,with its Booming economy.
I fail to understand such creatures.

 

[(o_O)]

This is embarassing,Nehru created IIT to train people to serve their nation and race it to the top of the world.But some think only of themselves.

if he would addressed corruption with same intent,India would have become one of the top country.
but if not for IIT there would some other institution catering the need.

 

[Cow(ard)Boy]

if he would addressed corruption with same intent,India would have become one of the top country.
but if not for IIT there would some other institution catering the need.

????????????????????

 

[Kyusuibu Honbu]

Not all Indians are staying in America.

Check this out.