Hong Kong

In the three months that 19-year-old Sujey Subramanian (above, first row, second from right), a Stanford undergraduate student, spent in India this summer working at Tata Consultancy Services, India's first billion dollar information technology company, he has found two things strange: arranged marriage, and the work culture.

"I can't understand how arranged marriages work. And I can't understand how employees stay as late as 11 pm at work everyday on weekdays and sometimes on weekends too," he says.

Sujey, who has lived most of his life outside India, is getting his first exposure to corporate and urban India through his internship at TCS, where he is involved in helping create the business plan for a new banking software product that the company is exploring.

Born in Chennai, Sujey moved to Hong Kong when he was two. After a high school degree there, he picked Stanford to get a dual degree in economics with management science and engineering. But he opted to return to India for his brush with the corporate world.

AIEEE

AIEEE is a national level entrance test for admission to Engineering, and Architecture and Planning degree courses offered by various engineering colleges and institutes the country. The exam is conducted by Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), and Department of Secondary and Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) in compliance with the directives of the Government of India. Almost 6,00,000 candidates take this exam every year.

Fifth-largest economy

'India is the world's fifth-largest economy and the world's largest democracy. It has an ancient civilisation, vast potential and enormous problems. Its economy is opening up and it has withstood the shocks that have recently shaken Southeast Asia. It is an increasingly important centre of knowledge creation in science and technology. MIT has long and deep ties with India. The time is right to build on them to create an intellectually vital program of internships, exchanges and new partnerships,' commented Professor Keniston about the programme in Techtalk, the MIT magazine

ATI programme

ATI offers an all-expenses paid trip to India for its Fellows, who also get a stipend from the company.

IInterns at Bioconn the first year of the ATI programme, four Stanford students interned at two companies, Planetasia, an Internet technologies and services company, and Kshema Technologies, a software solutions company.

"I plan to come back to India in a few years so I wanted to experience the corporate environment here," says Minal Mehta, a 1999 ATI Fellow who interned at Planetasia.

Outsourcing hub

"There is much talk about India's power as an outsourcing hub. We discuss this between classes and in the corridors [in Stanford]. After I graduate I want to start my own company and then I will outsource to India. I want to make my connections now, which is why I decided to work in India," he says.

Like Sujey, an increasing number of students from the United States and the United Kingdom are coming to intern at top companies in India in two of the hottest fields today, information technology and biotechnology.

Outside India

Sujey, who has lived most of his life outside India, is getting his first exposure to corporate and urban India through his internship at TCS, where he is involved in helping create the business plan for a new banking software product that the company is exploring.

Born in Chennai, Sujey moved to Hong Kong when he was two. After a high school degree there, he picked Stanford to get a dual degree in economics with management science and engineering. But he opted to return to India for his brush with the corporate world

USCIS

The USCIS, which has received three times more applications than the quota, will now select applicants through a random selection process. It will first conduct the selection for 'advanced degree' exemption petitions; those who do not make that cut will get a second shot, as part of the random selection process for the 65,000 visas.

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.

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.'

Authorisation

a temporary employment authorisation that gives F-1 students an opportunity to get practical work experience -- at present has a limit of 12 months; the extension is being hailed as a victory, however small, for companies including Microsoft and Oracle which had complained of the non-availability of H1-B visas. Compete America, a coalition of corporations, research institutions and trade associations, has welcomed the extension.

The extension is available only to F-1 students with a degree in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM), who are employed by businesses enrolled in the E-Verify programme.

E-Verify is a free, Internet-based system operated in partnership with the Social Security Administration, which helps employers determine the employment eligibility of newly-hired employees.

"This rule will enable businesses to attract and retain highly skilled foreign workers, giving US companies a competitive advantage in the world economy," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said.