India
Inc eyes NRI talent bank
NEW YORK, APRIL 19, 2005
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has launched
an Indian American Council, a "clearing house"
of Indian expatriate talent to be tapped for the country's
all-round growth, with technology and management guru
Sam Pitroda as its chairman.
Pitroda said its purpose is to "institutionalise"
wide-ranging efforts that the Indian diaspora makes
in aid of the country of their origin.
"There are so many connection points between India
and the Indians worldwide that have remained unconnected.
The council would aim to bring them together,"
Pitroda said here.
"From professors wanting to teach in India to
water experts wanting to get involved in India's water
challenges and from established scientists wanting to
offer their expertise to businessmen wanting to get
involved in the social sector, there is no shortage
of Indians keen on contributing. The council wants to
give them a platform for precisely that," he said.
The concept of the council was introduced during two-week-long
roadshows headed by CII president and industrialist
Sunil Kant Munjal in cities such as San Francisco, Seattle
and Washington.
Munjal said, "We as a nation and companies have
not done a great job of telling the people about the
changes that have happened in India. It is time we did
that."
He said during his visit, US and Indian companies from
India, and Indian companies from the US got together
on a mission to connect India to the US.
Munjal said while the story of India's success in IT
services was well told, there has been a "quiet"
emergence of the manufacturing sector, which was not
being talked about much.
In this context he cited the fact that 13 Indian manufacturers
had won the much-coveted Deming Prize, considered the
equivalent of the Nobel Prize for the manufacturing
industry. That, he said, was a measure of India's growing
success in the manufacturing sector as well.
The launch of the council in New York was held at the
Indian Consulate General where over 150 top executives
attended. Giving an overview of India's economy Consul
General Pramathesh Rath said the country's GDP was now
$820 billion.
He said India now ranked among the top 10 economies
in the world and in terms of purchasing power parity
it ranked at number four. A substantial amount of the
country's GDP growth was in the past one year or so,
he said.
Rath said it was a measure of the growing business
interest in India among American companies that the
consulate's issuance of business visa had gone up dramatically.
All speakers at the event, while underscoring India's
rapid growth, also voiced concern over a large percentage
of population still remaining untouched by a booming
economy.
Pitroda, in particular, spoke of 400 million people
still living in poverty and said unless prosperity reached
them, the country could not claim its legitimate position
among the world's most advanced nations. (IANS)
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