US heaps praise on IIT Grads
US heaps praise on IIT Grads
Date: Monday, May 23, 2005 4:47 PM
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
by Rob Sanchez
May 23, 2005 No. 1264
This newsletter contains two articles with different views of the
Global Indian Institutes of Technology Alumni Conference held in
Washington DC. The first article assumes that the conference was an
important if not decisive victory for Indian interests. The second
article downplays its importance.
I feel the truth lies closer to the first article. Many of the
corporate fat-cats in India are paranoid about backlash and think it's
better to downplay the progress they are making on liberalizing our
trade and immigrantion policies. They certainly don't want us to know
how thouroughly they are manipulating politicians.
Perhaps the most important reason the conference was a win for the
cheap labor lobby is that our own Congress officially agreed that
Indian IT workers are essential to the future of the United States.
That manifesto passed as House Resolution 227 in order to praise
Indians who have graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology
(IIT). Res. 227 is far more than mere symbolism, as Suresh Shenoy,
conference chairman, points out:
"So now it's a permanent record in Congress about what IIT-ians
have done to boost the US economy and the American workforce
and the contributions of the Indian-American community to
American society in general," the younger Shenoy added.
The first article contains many quotes from our politicians, and all
them indicate that they have bought the hyperbole hook, line and
sinker.
Rep Davis (R-VA) believes that American kids don't recognize the value
of high-tech educations, and his implication is that we must use kids
from India because they are superior students:
"As our nation struggles to teach the value of education to
our young, I strongly believe that we should hold in high
regard the Indian-American community's commitment to higher
education," and described it as 'indeed inspirational.'
Davis doesn't stop there. He goes on to repeat the Bush mantra that
outsourcing is good for America. Of course he is referring to the
offshoring of high-tech jobs to India. Davis said that Indian
businesses create jobs, but he wisely didn't say who would get the jobs
because we all know it won't be American kids.
"This was an opportunity to clear these misperceptions and
talk about how outsourcing and offshoring has helped our
economy and that this is all a part of free trade and also
educate the public about the contributions by Indian-Americans
and Indian businesses in helping to grow the US economy
and generate jobs," he said.
Rep. Danny Davis emphasized that the success of Indians that work in
the U.S. is due to the fact that they value education. His implication
is similar to the one made by Davis - Americans don't value education
and therefore don't deserve the jobs.
Representative Danny Davis, Illinois Democrat, in his remarks,
said the high-income level of Indian-Americans "is not only
an example of their determination and hard work, but it is
also a testament to the strong regard they hold for education."
Danny Davis expects us to revere Indian ITT workers as role models.
It's been a long time since the American public was asked to endorse
slave labor!
"The value that members of the Indian-American community place
on education allows them and helps them to succeed in this
country and to become positive role models and economic forces
for all of us," he said.
OK, now it's the naysayers turn. Notice how the value of the conference
is being downplayed.
Professor M S Ananth, Director, Indian Institute of
Technology-Madras, does not expect tangible deliverables from
the Global IIT Alumni Conference, but acknowledges that such
repetitive interactions can ultimately pay dividends in
realising at least part of the objectives.
"I don't expect any direct take-off from any of these
conferences."
"You are too naive if you expect anything like that.
A reader of this newsletter had an interesting observation that all of
those who attended the conference referred to IIT graduates as
"Indian-Americans". The only Indian-Americans they could be referring
to that graduate from IIT would be those that got Green Cards and
become naturalized citizens because nonimmigrants on H-1B visas don't
call themselves Americans. Indian-Americans who were born in India
should not be confused with those of Indian descent that were born in
the USA because the latter are full citizens that attend U.S.
universities. To make matters more confusing, all of the conference
pooh-bahs including CEOs such as Jack Welch completely ignored the
large numbers of IIT graduates that work here on H-1B and L-1 visas.
The consistent referral to "Indian-Americans" is so pervasive I have to
wonder if conference members were required to sleep with CD-players
under their pillows so that while asleep they heard the subliminal
message: "AMERICAN-INDIANS". Another explanation is that all
participating U.S. politicians and CEOs had brain implants connected by
radio waves to a central server in Bangalore.
Jokes aside, these types of speech patterns rarely happen by accident.
This doublespeak is engineered to slowly get us to accept that there is
no border between the U.S. and India. Just to keep the record straight
- there are U.S. citizens and citizens of India and until our borders
are erased let's don't allow the globalists to continue concatenating
these words together.
Hopefully our politicians are smart enough to understand the difference
between "Indian-Americans" and "Native American Indians".
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.rediff.com/money/2005/may/20iit1.htm
US heaps praise on IITs
Aziz Haniffa in Washington, DC | May 20, 2005 | 23:34 IST
The conveners of the Global Indian Institutes of Technology Alumni
Conference in Washington, DC -- 'Technology Without Borders,' that
begins May 20 and runs through the weekend -- could not have wished for
a bigger boost in the run-up to the biennial parley than House
Resolution 227.
The Resolution that was adopted unanimously by the US House of
Representatives late last month heaped kudos on the IITs and the
contributions of its alumni to American society and this country's
economy.
The resolution, authored by Congressman Tom Davis, Virginia Republican
-- at the urging of Sudhakar Shenoy, founder-CEO, IMC Inc and co-chair
of the convention -- and co-sponsored by dozens of lawmakers, declared
that the House of Representatives 'recognises the valuable and
significant contributions of Indian-Americans to American society;
honors the economic innovation attributable to graduates of the Indian
Institutes of Technology; and urges all Americans to recognise 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.'
Global IIT Alumni Meet: Coverage
Congressional sources said they could not remember a time when Congress
had paid such a singular honor to a foreign institution on higher
learning.
The resolution, which followed proclamations by the Governors of
Maryland and Virginia Robert Ehrlich Jr and Mark Warner, respectively,
declaring May as Indian-American Heritage and IIT Graduate Month, had
lawmakers from both sides of the aisle virtually lining up to sing the
praises of the IIT alumni and the Indian-American community.
Shenoy, a Republican Party stalwart and major contributor to the GOP,
is a friend of Davis and other Virginia lawmakers in Congress, both
Republican and Democrat. He recently traveled with Governor Warner to
India. He told rediff.com that the resolution came about after a dinner
he had with Davis about a month ago.
"I told him that the state of Maryland and Virginia had issued
proclamations welcoming our upcoming conference and declaring May as
IIT month and whether there is a possibility that he can do the same in
Congress and he said, 'Absolutely.'"
"He had already been very excited about our conference and had in fact
agreed to host a Congressional reception for us on the Capitol Hill
Rotunda along with Senator George Allen (Virginia Republican), and
hardly within a week he introduced the resolution and as you know, it
was unanimously approved," Shenoy, who is also the chairman of the
Northern Virginia Technology Council, said.
"I had also met with Bobby [Jindal, Louisiana Republican] and he also
promised to co-sponsor the resolution and also said he would gladly be
a part of the convention and of course, as you know, he was on the
floor of the House during the nearly one-hour debate -- carried live on
C-Span -- praising the Indian-American community and the IITs," he
added.
"I was happy to do it," Davis told rediff.com, "I wanted to do it very
much and talk about the wonderful contributions that Indian-Americans
have made not just to the state of Virginia but all across the United
States, and the great institutions of higher learning that these Indian
Institutes of Technology are."
Davis said the resolution and speaking about the contributions of the
Indian-Americans to American society and economy and the IITs was "also
an opportunity to talk about and clear a lot of the misperceptions that
people have about the outsourcing and offshoring issue because not a
day seems to go by without some reference of resolution in some state
legislature or other and even in US Congress, blaming outsourcing for
American job losses and so on."
"This was an opportunity to clear these misperceptions and talk about
how outsourcing and offshoring has helped our economy and that this is
all a part of free trade and also educate the public about the
contributions by Indian-Americans and Indian businesses in helping to
grow the US economy and generate jobs," he said.
Suresh Shenoy, conference chairman, told rediff.com that along with
Hiten Ghosh, vice president, Hughes Network Systems and vice president
of Pan-IIT, one of the hosts of the conference, and other conference
organisers like Ashok Siddhanti, he had met with Davis "about three
times to brief him about the conference and to provide him with
information on the IITs and the contributions of the alumni and so on,
and the several businesses they have started here in the US and how
much they have contributed to the economy and the several thousands of
jobs they have generated."
Suresh, Sudhakar's younger brother and executive vice president, IMC,
acknowledged that "clearly, nothing like this would have been possible
without Sudhakar's Republican connections and friendship with Tom Davis
and others in the party although he was so encouraged and impressed by
the achievements and contributions of the IIT alumni that he said he
was not just intent to introduce a resolution but have a debate and get
it unanimously approved, which was done within just a matter of days
after he first introduced it."
"So now it's a permanent record in Congress about what IIT-ians have
done to boost the US economy and the American workforce and the
contributions of the Indian-American community to American society in
general," the younger Shenoy added.
Davis, who kicked off the floor statements, said, "After winning
independence in 1947, India began building a democratic nation to
provide its citizens with equal opportunities and one of the successes
of the new nation was the Indian Institute of Technology, or IIT, which
was established in Kharagpur in May 1950."
"Today there are seven IIT campuses across India and they have become
synonymous with excellence in technology and engineering education," he
said.
Davis noted that 'since the inception of IIT, thousands of graduates
have sought and achieved the highest levels of professional successes
in the United States and indeed throughout the world. IIT graduates are
estimated to have stimulated the creation of over 150,000 jobs in the
US and most Silicon Valley firms have at least one IIT graduate among
their top executives."
He said in his district in Northern Virginia, "We literally have dozens
of IIT executives running their own companies, producing thousands of
jobs."
Davis said the US has "attracted more IIT graduates than any other
country because we remain on the cutting edge of the science and
technology fields," and expressed his pleasure "that the House is
recognising the achievements of Indian-Americans and IIT graduates in
helping make the United States the global leader it is."
"Indian-Americans are wonderful ambassadors of their homeland," he
declared, "and they strengthen the strong friendship between India and
the United States, the two largest democratic nations in the world."
Representative Danny Davis, Illinois Democrat, in his remarks, said the
high-income level of Indian-Americans "is not only an example of their
determination and hard work, but it is also a testament to the strong
regard they hold for education."
"The value that members of the Indian-American community place on
education allows them and helps them to succeed in this country and to
become positive role models and economic forces for all of us," he
said.
Davis, one of the most respected and influential African-American
members of Congress and a former chairman of the Congressional Black
Caucus, said, "As our nation struggles to teach the value of education
to our young, I strongly believe that we should hold in high regard the
Indian-American community's commitment to higher education," and
described it as 'indeed inspirational.'
Jindal was the third lawmaker on his feet and on the well of the House
floor, heaping praise on the Indian-American community. He said he was
'very proud to be the son of Indian immigrants to this country,' and
noted that though he was "born and raised in Louisiana, I am very proud
of their background."
"Certainly, I think not only my parents but the entire Indian-American
community is a great example of living the American dream, and so many
stories have been told and there are so many wonderful examples."
"Certainly we can talks in terms of numbers," Jindal said. "We can
talks in terms of IIT graduates who are now doing so well in Fortune
500 companies in this country. Certainly we can talk about the academic
achievements. We can talk about the contributions to our high-tech
industry in this country. We can talk about the contributions in
medicine, in small business ownership, and the numbers are phenomenal."
He said the Indian-American community is "one of the most successful,
if not the most successful, immigrant group, but I do not think the
numbers tell the entire story. I think sometimes we have to look beyond
the numbers and hear the personal stories."
Jindal then began to recount the story of his own father, "one of nine
children, the first one in his family and the only one to go to high
school, much less beyond high school, and I am certainly proud of
everything my father has accomplished in this country."
"But it is not just my father, I am very proud of all the different
Indian-Americans I have the privilege of meeting who have achieved so
much in their respective fields, and again, a wonderful example of the
American dream, a wonderful example that in this country we do provide
opportunity of one works hard and pursues that education."
Jindal said he now appreciates "more and more what my parents have
sacrificed, what they have endured and what they have accomplished. I
appreciate more the significance of the accomplishments of the
Indian-American community," and acknowledged "some of things we took
for granted. I did, anyway, growing up. We did not really realise the
significance of those struggles, those sacrifices, and how remarkable
have been their collective and individual achievements."
He pointed out that in his state, "Indian-American physicians serve
some of the neediest areas, allow emergency rooms to stay open, provide
primary care to those who would not otherwise have access to care."
Jindal, who also spoke for the longest time on the floor, noted that
there were more than a couple of hundred thousand Indian-American
working in Silicon Valley and several hundred heading up companies
there and also 'responsible for 15 per cent of the high tech start-ups
in the area."
"In my home district," he said, "Indian-Americans own businesses in the
largest cities to the smallest communities -- the most rural parts of
my state -- employing thousands of my constituents."
In thanking Davis for authoring the resolution and his colleagues for
co-sponsoring it, Jindal said, "I am very proud to not only co-sponsor
the resolution but to be part of a community that is so grateful and
has done so much to contribute to this country."
Representative Robert Menendez, New Jersey Democrat, said every day
Indian-Americans "show their dedication not only to improving the
economy and the competitiveness of this country, but in advancing a
positive relationship between the United States and India."
He said the resolution "presents us with an opportunity to thank those
who have made such an important impact on our society. Indian-Americans
have created thousands of jobs in the US and hold senior positions at
Fortune 500 companies, national labs, universities, and venture capital
firms."
"And through their work as economists, researchers, educators, and
social and political leaders, they have ensured that their
extraordinary commitment will benefit not only this generation, but the
next, as well," Menendez said.
Representative Joe Crowley, New York Democrat and former co-chair of
the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans, in his remarks
said he has first-hand knowledge of the "contributions my friends from
India have made."
Pointing out that he represents the second highest concentration of
Indian-Americans in the country, he said, "I have seen for myself on
74th Street in Jackson Heights, Queens, how successful and industrious
Indian-Americans are. That recipe for success starts with institutions
like the Indian Institute of Technology, which we recognise today, and
the far-reaching success of their graduates."
"The IIT has had a long history of grooming fine minds that have gone
on to achieve incredible success in India and around the world,"
Crowley said.
He said many of the top entrepreneurs and business leaders in the US
today have graduated from the IIT like Vinod Khosla, founder of Sun
MicroSystems to Rajat Gupta, 'the first non-North America born head of
the venerable consulting company McKinsey and Company."
Crowley, in echoing Danny Davis' sentiments, argued that "I believe in
today's current educational environment in the United States, we can
learn from the history of how the Indian government went about
establishing this institute. After Indians gained independence from the
British, they formed committees to explore ways of creating an educated
class of people to move the country forward."
"What they found was that to be competitive in the world they needed to
excel in technology and engineering, which is where we in the United
States find ourselves to be lacking today."
Crowley exhorted that "we need to follow the example of our Indian
friends and the example we set in the 1960s and create a national
strategy to make the way we teach our children in the United States
more focused on the math and sciences so we are not left behind."
He asserted that "instead of fearing India as an economic competitor,
we should be embracing India as an economic and political ally," and
noted that "the over one billion consumers in India and the market for
US goods and services in India allows for unprecedented opportunities
for American companies, and job growth for Americans."
Representative Jim Moran, Virginia Democrat, in commending the IIT
graduates "for their economic innovations and technological
innovations," noted that it was aptly significant that the first IIT
created in 1950 in Kharagpur was situated "at the site of the Hijli
detention camp, which was used to house young Indian freedom fighters
during the Independence movement."
Moran said besides IIT alumni in the US serving in senior positions in
several established Fortune 500 companies, they "are also serving as
deans and professors at the best universities in the United States,
including Harvard, MIT, and Carnegie Mellon."
He also spoke of the impact IIT graduates have had on the US economy
and said, "Over 25 per cent of graduates since 1990 have been
entrepreneurs and have started numerous companies that have fueled job
creation in their communities. IIT alumni are also performing cutting
edge research that is needed by US companies, and a great number have
received patents for their innovations."
Moran said the effect of IIT graduates 'is felt here in the United
States and throughout the world,' and added that it is imperative that
'all Americans recognise the great impact Indian-Americans and IIT
graduates have had on our society and economy.'
"Without their knowledge, skill, and drive to achieve, our economy
would not have as many technological innovations which enrich our daily
lives," he maintained.
Before the vote was taken, Tom Davis thanked his namesake from Illinois
for helping to bring the resolution to the floor on behalf of the
Democrats.
He also thanked Jindal, "a Rhodes Scholar and one who has brought
credit to his heritage, to his state, and this body by serving here."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2005/may/23iit.htm
'Don't expect too much from IIT meet'
May 23, 2005 12:42 IST
Professor M S Ananth, Director, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras,
does not expect tangible deliverables from the Global IIT Alumni
Conference, but acknowledges that such repetitive interactions can
ultimately pay dividends in realising at least part of the objectives.
In an interview with rediff.com, Ananth, who was in the United States
recently to deliver the keynote speech at the US Chemical Research
Council conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and then came down to
Washington to meet with IIT-Madras alumni, said, "I don't expect any
direct take-off from any of these conferences."
"You are too naive if you expect anything like that. But the idea is,
we do not communicate very well except by repetition and this is true
of all groups. So we need several meetings before we can communicate
exactly what we want to do and how it synergises with what they want to
do," he said.
The Global IIT Alumni Meet: Coverage
Ananth, who will return to Washington along with other directors of the
various IITs for the conference, predicted, "Till that synergy comes it
won't happen; it can happen only by these frequent meetings."
However, notwithstanding his reality check, Ananth acknowledged, "Of
course, the idea that alumni are interested in their alma mater is a
very important concept. It is a new concept for India. In India it's
just not there. So what we need to do is leverage this warm feeling and
out of the various discussions, we will get ideas."
"Thus, the purpose is to find ideas which can actually achieve some
answers to some of the deficiencies we've seen in the system, without
culturally giving up our backgrounds," he said.
Elaborating, he explained, "The setting is different -- what you can do
professionally in the US is not the same thing you can do in India --
it's not even desirable. So the idea is to discuss it. In fact, I have
given a vision paper to the pan-IIT alumni associations in which I have
raised these doubts -- how does one build in the Indianness."
Ananth argued, "My contention is that as a civilisation and in the
process of accepting the logical form of the West we have given up the
intuitive form, and we should retain both. Only then will we have a
good chance of synergizing."
But beyond the philosophical, he lauded the pan-IIT alumni concept
saying it was good because "it makes sense to combine the IITs together
because in terms of numbers we are very small."
"If you look at education in India, undergraduate education now has
450,000 students entering, the numbers are increasing, and out of the
450,000, IITs handle 4,500 -- just one per cent. So in a sense we need
more IITs."
But Ananth said the "main alarm in India" among IITs "is post-graduate
education," and perhaps echoing the concerns of his fellow directors of
other six IITs, bemoaned, "We have 20,000 seats of which only 10,000
are taken, and given that only 20 per cent of post-graduates will come
into teaching, we have effectively 2,000 teachers available."
When the argument was made that in a free-market economy, people are
motivated by ultimately how much they are able to take back in terms of
compensation and other remuneration and if there was a serious shortage
of faculty why not come up with a compensation scheme that will be an
incentive for people to come and teach and make more money, he said it
is easier said than done.
Ananth asserted, "It is not possible in the current context. As far as
government institutions are concerned, the maximum salary you can draw
is that of a Cabinet Secretary. Then there is a hierarchy. Next to the
Cabinet Secretary, you have the regular Secretary who draws Rs 26,000
as basic salary per month."
"So therefore, the IIT Director shall not get more than that -- and if
the IIT Director gets that, you can imagine what the faculty gets," he
said.
He acknowledged that the faculty was free to consult and earn extra
income, and that "there is no cap on that at all. But on the other
hand, consulting is a very demanding thing. Nobody is going to give you
money unless you deliver, and delivering requires time."
"So basically, we are looking at maximum of one day in a week that a
faculty member can spend in order to earn money, and it takes time for
you to build up that kind of a reputation," he added.
Ananth said the question is, "how do you get a larger faculty," and
noted, "I have hired 130 faculty members in the last three years, of
who 36 have BTechs from various IITs who've done PhD abroad and come
back.
But I have lost 90 by retirement and so I am running very fast to stay
where I am.
"I am at 350 faculty-member strength and it's not as if I don't get
applicants. I had 600 applicants for something like 30 vacancies in one
department which is typical. But 30 is all I could call for the
interview. We had to screen the rest out. These were PhDs from abroad
but they had no publication record and they just didn't measure up.
"So you have to be careful and, secondly, there is a difference between
the marketplace and educational institutions -- the values are
different. You cannot import one into the other and while it's
important that the outside be competitive, the academic environment by
its very nature, it has to be cultivated."
Ananth said he does have adjunct faculty and that IITs have several
provisions whereby people can be hired without PhDs in management --
"it is one of the exceptions and there are similar provisions for
architecture and planning where we can also take people without PhDs."
"And I have adjunct faculty who don't even need a master's degree. So
adjunct faculty is perfectly possible and we have that. But I am
talking about core faculty."
Ananth said, "Every Indian has to make a decision whether to go into an
industrial or academic career and the next question is, do you want it
in India or the US. I believe the choice is not hard to make."
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