My school's 50th anniversary in Silicon Valley !

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by manjuap, Jan 12, 2003.

Loading...
  1. manjuap

    manjuap New Member

    Infotech biggies to attend IIT annual fest in Silicon Valley

    PTI[ SUNDAY, JANUARY 12, 2003 09:39:56 PM ]

    SILICON VALLEY: Some of the biggest names in business and higher education, including Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, will get together in Silicon Valley next week to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Indian Institute of Technology. Human resources development minister Murli Manohar Joshi will be the chief guest at the largest-ever IIT-event, being held on January 17-18, to celebrate and recognise the accomplishments of IIT’s prestigious alumni.

    The US ambassador to India Robert Blackwill, and Stanford University president John Hennessy will be among the keynote speakers. “It (IIT) attracts the smartest, the real cream of the crop, who view IIT as their ticket to economic freedom and interesting jobs,” says venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, who was a co-founder of Sun Microsystems. Proud of his alma mater, Khosla claimed that it’s among the best — possibly the best — undergraduate engineering programmes in the world. Around 20 per cent of IIT graduates now work and live in the United States.

    In addition, hundreds of companies founded in the United States in recent years were led by graduates of IIT, said Dilip Venkatachari, an IIT graduate and president and co-founder of California-based Cashedge. Despite being one of the top five global educational institutions and its vast contribution to Silicon Valley and corporate America, IIT has had an extremely low profile in the United States, which this month’s celebration is expected to help rectify, said Venkatachari. “We thought this would be a good time to take stock in letting the US market understand what IIT is all about,” said Venkatachari, one of the main coordinators of the event. The anniversary gives the Indian government-funded institution an opportunity to launch an organised alumni fund-raising campaign and to plant the seeds of an American-style alumni network.

    It should also encourage alumnus 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 centres and research labs, to India, where costs are low and educated workers run high.
     

Share This Page