H-1Bs: Pittsburgh's ticket to prosperity

Date: Tuesday, December 31, 2002 4:21 PM

H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

Just in case you didn't know, Pittsburgh, has more Hindu temples than
anywhere else. Click on the link below to see what one of those temples
looks like. Is that a monitor I see hiding in the Taj Mahal?

This self serving article was written by no other than Ashok K. Trivedi, the
founder of the Indian H-1B bodyshop Mastech. According to Trivedi the only
hope for saving cities like Pittsburgh is H-1Bs from Asia. We should feel
lucky that those smart H-1Bs are coming here to save America from being
destroyed by those incompetent American engineers and programmers.

You won't be able to view all of their LCAs at www.ZaZona.com/LCA-Data
because they have over 500 records so I will tally to totals for you.

iGate: 1760 LCAs, most of them 20 H-1Bs per LCA
Mastech: 1652 LCAs, more than half have 10 or more H-1Bs per LCA

Will Trivedi be recognized as the savior of America if he keeps importing
this many H-1Bs?

http://www.post-gazette.com/businessnews/20021231bizforumbiz4p4.asp

Immigrants needed again
Experienced IT entrepreneurs with Asian roots could be Pittsburgh's ticket
to prosperity

Tuesday, December 31, 2002

By Ashok K. Trivedi

At the dawn of the 20th century, Pittsburgh's economic engine was fueled by
European immigrants whose skill, strength and determination built the region
into a world-class industrial powerhouse. Today the region is struggling to
rebuild its economy around the knowledge industries of the 21st century.

Anita Dufalla, Post-Gazette

Once again, what will be required to ignite them is the energy, experience
and enterprise of new immigrants -- only this time from Asia. And if we play
our hand right, I'm convinced that Pittsburgh is ideally positioned to seize
that opportunity.

Consider what's been happening in India. Back in 1988, when my partner Sunil
Wadhwani and I started Mastech, iGate's forerunner company, U.S. schools
turned out 10 times the number of software engineers as did Indian
universities. Today India produces three or four times as many as the United
States. During just the past 10 years, India has built an enormous software
services industry which many American firms now use as their primary site
for software development, customer support, and back office operations.

Yet none of these companies consider themselves complete without a U.S.
headquarters, sales office or development unit. Surprisingly, however, their
U.S. outposts -- which typically serve the entire country -- are scattered
almost haphazardly.

So why not here? If they are courted, made to feel welcome and offered some
type of tangible benefit for selecting Pittsburgh, I think we have an
excellent chance of reeling in some of them.

Then there's the matter of technology leadership. During the last 20 years,
when Silicon Valley and technology centers in Boston, Seattle and Northern
Virginia started soaring, Pittsburgh was largely left behind. It wasn't
because we were lacking in venture capital, research institutions or
technical expertise. What we lacked instead was a large-scale technology
company to grow new leaders and spawn new generations of technology firms.
So our pool of experienced technology entrepreneurs here is really quite
shallow.

Hewlett-Packard and Fairchild Semiconductors provided that sort of
leadership to Silicon Valley. In Boston, it was Digital Equipment. In
Seattle it was Microsoft. Here in Pittsburgh, Westinghouse could have played
that role, but lost its way before finally vanishing. Regrettably, I don't
see another homegrown technology giant anywhere on the horizon.

Contrary to popular belief, new companies don't usually grow out of
university labs; they grow from the middle-management ranks of established
companies -- from experienced people who are already in the marketplace, who
see opportunities and act on them.

Even Mastech, which was never a giant firm, became the spawning ground for
half a dozen other companies.

Ashok K. Trivedi is co-founder and president of iGate Corp. He resides in
Upper St. Clair.

Without the advantage of a technology leader to groom new entrepreneurs and
create new businesses, Pittsburgh has to find another way, and the current
economy presents a unique opportunity.

In the Silicon Valley today, there is a large community of Indian
entrepreneurs -- including a number of serial entrepreneurs -- who know how
to start and grow leading-edge technology companies. But many of those who
were prospering just two years ago are now finding it challenging in the
nation's most expensive state. And that's where we can help.

Pittsburgh has a number of fledgling IT and biotech firms, as well as a
university community that's bustling with innovation. But we suffer a lack
of experienced local leadership.

Meanwhile, Silicon Valley has a surplus of local leadership teams, but a
relative shortage of new operational high-tech business ventures in the
current economic environment.

Many of California's most experienced Asian entrepreneurs clearly understand
our emerging technologies and their markets.

So if they can see that a new technology here shows promise -- and can be
coupled with tangible benefits for relocating -- suddenly there's a new
company team in Pittsburgh, hiring local people as it grows.

What would a tangible benefit look like? Perhaps special access to
technology transfer. Or a rent-free year of business space. Or tax relief.
Or low-cost state loans -- in fact any business benefit that could help to
close the deal. And that also could be coupled with more specialized
assistance.

Could it really work? Unlike most American professionals, Asian immigrants
seldom have extended families here. So they are comparatively free to move
about the country.

While the cost of living in Pittsburgh is just a fraction of what it is in
California, the quality of our social, educational and cultural resources is
actually quite high. And Pittsburgh, surprisingly, has more Hindu temples
than anywhere else in America, so it is already a magnet for Indian families
throughout North America.

About 18 months ago, I helped launch the Pittsburgh chapter of TiE (The
IndUS Entrepreneurs), an international association of technology
entrepreneurs with family roots in India.

Although still comparatively small, we believe we can play a pivotal role,
together with the region's leading economic development organizations, in
approaching and attracting these entrepreneurs to visit us and settle here.

These same concepts will work to lure companies and entrepreneurs from China
and other countries in Asia to Pittsburgh.

And if we succeed, we may once again see the surge of immigrant-driven
energy that made Pittsburgh great.

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