Silicon Valley to Celebrate Bombay University

Date: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 10:01 AM

H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

Those of us opposed to H-1B have begged and pleaded for years with "60
minutes" to do a story on this scandal but they show no interest. So why,
you may ask, is Leslie Stahl in Silicon Valley interviewing IIT (Bombay
University) graduates in preparation for a piece for "60 Minutes". It's
because IIT is going to celebrate their 50th anniversary Jan. 17-18, in San
Jose and nearby Cupertino, Calif.

Perhaps a few angry American techies should crash the party and say hello to
their keynote speaker Bill Gates.

For those of you not familiar with IIT I have included some articles.

http://www.iitbombay.org/misc/press/bw120798.htm
This Business Week article says that IIT has "impossibly high standards"
with a mostly male population.

http://www.salon.com/books/it/1999/12/06/indian/print.html
This Salon article called "Technical Sutra" explains where Silicon Valley's
technical geniuses graduated from. In case you didn't guess, the answer is
IIT.

http://66.33.83.133/npage/braincur.asp
The bold title explains it all: Brain Curry: American campuses crave for IIT
of glory. "American technical education is in crisis and standards are
declining. Americans marvel at the IIT's exacting academic benchmarks -
standards that allow a bare one per cent acceptance rate, compared to the
plus ten per cent of the best US schools (Harvard has 13 per cent)."

http://www.asee.org/prism/oct99/html/india.htm
According to the The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), ITT
is the gem that shines the brightest.

http://www.iit.edu/~peteste/MIT.html
Hmmmm. This guy is some kind of renegade because his page is titled "The
Truth About IIT, IIT is not MIT, though it wants to be"

http://www.emailthis.clickability.com/et/emailThis?clickMap=viewThis&etMailToID=1422055178&pt=Y

Barron's, January 6, 2003

Silicon Subcontinent

The graduates of India's universities have made big contributions to the
evolution of information technology for many decades, especially in Silicon
Valley. That's why it's fitting that some of India's most successful
engineers and entrepreneurs in the Valley have planned a major soiree to
celebrate the 50th anniversary of their alma mater, the India Institute of
Technology, or IIT.

To honor the milestone for one of the world's top engineering undergraduate
schools, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is slated to be the keynote speaker
at a two-day confab planned for Jan. 17-18, to be held in San Jose and
nearby Cupertino, Calif.

Considering that Microsoft in November committed to invest $400 million over
the next three years in India, it is not shocking that the pragmatic Gates
opted to address the IIT crowd. What's more important to note is that the
Microsoft chief has identified the intellectual and economic benefits of
making a big investment in India.

Of course, getting a toehold in such a highly educated emerging mass market
is good business for Microsoft . For one thing, it helps the software giant
keep tabs on the many innovations sure to emerge from the sub-continent.
Equally important, it helps ensure that Microsoft will continue to recruit
its fair share of India's best and brightest.

"Obviously [Gates] thinks it's important, but they are really acting in
their own economic interest -- that's what is great about the global
marketplace," says venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, a partner in Menlo
Park-based Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers and a 1976 graduate of IIT.

Like most graduates of über-selective IIT, Khosla, who was a co-founder of
Sun Microsystems, is proud of his alma mater. Fewer than 2% of all
applicants get accepted to the institution's seven campuses. Khosla and
other graduates maintain that it's among the best -- possibly the best --
undergraduate engineering programs in the world.

"It attracts the smartest, the real cream of the crop, who view IIT as their
ticket to economic freedom and interesting jobs," says Khosla, who also
earned a masters degree in biomedical engineering from Carnegie-Mellon and a
masters in business from Harvard.

That ticket often takes them to the United States, where roughly 20% of
IIT's graduates now work and live. In addition, hundreds of the companies
founded in the United States in recent years were led by graduates of IIT,
says Dilip Venkatachari, an IIT graduate and president and co-founder of
Milipitas, Calif.-based CashEdge.

Despite its vast contribution to Silicon Valley and corporate America, IIT
has had an extremely low profile here -- and this month's celebration is
expected to help rectify, Venkatachari says.

The plan might be working. CBS News correspondent Leslie Stahl reportedly
has been in Silicon Valley interviewing IIT graduates in preparation for a
possible piece for "60 Minutes."

"We thought this would be a good time to take stock in letting the U.S.
market understand what IIT is all about," says Venkatachari, who is helping
plan the 50th anniversary bash.

What's more, the anniversary gives the Indian government-funded institution
an opportunity to launch an organized alumni fund-raising campaign and to
plant the seeds of an American-style alumni network. It should also
encourage alums to use their influence with current employers to invest in
India.

Plenty of companies seem to be doing just that, including Microsoft and
General Electric. Corporations the world over are shifting various
operations, such as telemarketing call centers and research labs, to India,
where costs are low and educated workers run high.

"If you look at some of these big companies, they are willing to transfer
resources to India because there is some great talent," Khosla says. "It is
a big win for globalization."

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