Human Development in the Program in Science

"MIT has more than 1,000 alumni who came from India to learn in the United States. We want to reverse the flow by sending our students to India to learn first hand Indian business practices, culture, technologies and problems," said Kenneth Keniston, director of the MIT-India Program and the Andrew Mellon Professor of Human Development in the Program in Science, Technology and Society. "Among these students will be men and women who have the technical knowledge and the cultural understanding needed to expand collaboration between our two countries."

Infosys

Apart from Infosys, its students have also worked at Godrej, one of India's largest privately held companies; ICICI, India's second-largest retail bank; and Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO), one of India's lowest cost producers of hot-rolled steel.

MIT

MIT, under its MIT-India Program, also sent 16 students to work and teach at some of India's premier firms and schools in 1999. The MIT-India Program students not only work in technology companies but also in companies from other business segments.

Technology hotspot

"Increasingly, Bangalore was seen as a technology hotspot. There was a lot of excitement on campus about Bangalore as a place to be seen at and to work in. Many students were interested in Bangalore because of the hype around it during the IT boom," he says

Experience

It is not surprising, therefore, that a number of students and universities are coming to India to experience for themselves what the buzz is all about. Institutions like Stanford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, Johns Hopkins, Harvard and Cambridge have sent their students to intern in India.

Biotechnology company

In the last five years, emerging markets like India and China are being seen as hotbeds of economic growth. India, specifically, has generated much interest because of the rapid growth it has charted in the IT sector. Besides, companies like Infosys, TCS and the biotechnology company, Biocon, are often referred to in the American media as the likely giants of the future.

Highly educated

"US employers deserve better than a random lottery to determine if they can hire the highly educated candidates they need," Hoffman said. "Congress has failed to address the problem, as US universities graduate highly educated individuals who leave to work in competitor nations. This madness must end this year

Advanced degree holders

Meanwhile, the USCIS stated on April 7 that it has received enough petitions to fill the regular H1-B quota of 65,000, and also advanced degree holders' quota of 20,000. This marks the first year that both caps were reached during the filing period, Compete America pointed out.

US companies

Microsoft chief lobbyist Jack Krumholtz applauded the extension, saying it 'allows US companies to recruit, hire, and retain the best graduating science, technology, engineering and math students trained at the top US universities.'

Administration

We are encouraged by the administration's move to keep talented graduates of US universities here in the United States, and look forward to reviewing the details of the regulation to assess how much relief this will provide," Robert Hoffman, vice president for government and public affairs at Oracle and co-chair of Compete America, said.