Clinton reaffirms support for expanded H-1B programs
Clinton reaffirms support for expanded H-1B programs
Date: Sunday, July 08, 2007 8:04 PM
<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1725 -- 7/08/2007 >>>>>
Hillary Clinton made a live videoconference speech to Indians and corporatists
at the "Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) 2007 Global Alumni Conference"
last week at Santa Clara, California. The conference was ballyhooed as the
coming-out party for the Indian American lobby that plans to coerce our
government into liberalizing immigration with India and expanding offshoring.
Clinton disappointed them when she canceled her live appearance but probably
made it up for them reassuring them that she is Punjab's most powerful senator
in Congress.
Clinton also reiterated her call to expand the H-1B program
that allows companies to bring in skilled foreign workers
who "contribute greatly to our U.S. technology development."
Among other things, Clinton said that she would use fees collected from the
visas to train American workers. If that wasn't bad enough she said that it's
the government's responsibility to create more college graduates in math and
science. I have two things to say about that:
1) H-1B visa fees are already used to train American workers. The problem is
that there aren't enough jobs to train for so most of the money is wasted to
teach former professionals how to get jobs that require lower level skills
than what they already possess. It does our economy great harm to
disenfranchise our best scientists and engineers and then to train them to be
nurses who change bed pans, or high school soccer coaches.
2) We don't need more graduates in math and science -- we need more jobs for
math and science graduates!
Clinton's statement below reveals her true allegiance to corporatism and
globalism. She considers the sovereign nation-state of the United States to be
a mere trade zone where goods are traded and money is invested.
"America is not just a marketplace to get a foothold in. It's
a place to make lasting investments that will create jobs and
economic growth for everyone," she added.
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http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/07/BUGQ5QSE7L1.DTL
Graduates celebrate India's clout
They recall how technology institute prepared many for their roles in America
Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Several thousand graduates of India's elite university system gathered at the
Santa Clara Convention Center Friday for an event that celebrated the growing
economic and political clout of that nation's expatriates and touched on
issues stemming from the increasing globalization of talent and innovation.
The conference, which ends Sunday, brings together graduates of the Indian
Institute of Technology. This network of technology schools, founded in the
1950s shortly after India achieved independence, has maintained its elite
status by admitting just a few thousand students each year based on a
competitive, nationwide exam.
Rajat Gupta, a senior partner in the McKinsey & Co. consulting firm, and Dilip
Venkatachari, who runs Google's mobile products division, described IIT as a
university system that has graduated about 100,000 people in the past half
century. About 25,000, like themselves, eventually immigrated to America and
climbed the corporate and entrepreneurial ladders.
Opening the event, Gupta recalled how this global gathering started five years
ago with a meeting of 25 alumni at Stanford. "From those humble beginnings it
is gratifying to have nearly 4,000 IITians gathered here in such a short
time," Gupta said.
To the extent this was a coming-out party for the Indian American lobby, its
impact was somewhat tarnished by the last-minute decision of presidential
candidate Hillary Clinton -- originally due to appear in person -- to address
the group by satellite instead. During her 15-minute remarks, Clinton said she
favors globalization and immigration, but suggested that Americans are getting
short shrift from trends like outsourcing and the ever-widening trade deficit.
"Americans are concerned about outsourcing and I think they're right to be,"
said Clinton, who argued for strengthening the education system to get more
people, particularly women and minorities, into fields like engineering. At
the same time, Clinton said, she favors the H-1B program that allows high-tech
companies to hire college-educated foreigners and would support an increase in
the number that U.S. firms are allowed to hire.
The politics of immigration surfaced again in an afternoon news conference
when reporters asked Indian American business and academic leaders to react to
the congressional deadlock over immigration.
"The day this country limits the reasonably free flow of skilled immigrants is
the day we start going downhill," said Pradeep Khosla, dean of the college of
engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.
General Electric chief executive Jeffrey Immelt discussed the promise and
perils of globalization -- and also played to the crowd. "I'm here today
because I am a big consumer of the product, which is you," said Immelt, noting
that GE employs about 1,500 graduates of the prestigious system.
"Thirty-five of the top 600 people in GE are IIT grads."
Arguing that "business in the 21st century is really the intersection between
globalization and technology," Immelt spoke about the strength of the Indian
economy and took a swipe at the political process. "The economy has now gotten
to a point in India where the government can't screw it up,"
he said to applause.
He also acknowledged the controversy that surrounds the growing integration of
world economies. "I'm a globalist, you're a globalist," Immelt told his
audience, saying the real question is whether the process would be slowed or
stopped by political backlash.
"If you put globalization up for a vote in the U.S., it would lose 60-40,"
he said, attributing this margin in part to "misinformation" but also because
"the bottom 25 percent of the U.S. has suffered from a wealth standpoint."
Immelt posed this challenge for his audience: "Can the standard of living of
Indians grow one hundred-fold, which should be your goal, without the standard
of living of Americans going down?"
E-mail Tom Abate at tabate@sfchronicle.com.
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http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_6320636
Clinton gives voice to outsourcing fears By Mary Anne Ostrom Mercury News San
Jose Mercury News Article Launched:07/07/2007 01:35:29 AM PDT
In one of her bluntest assessments of globalization yet, Sen. Hillary Rodman
Clinton challenged a large crowd of Indian technologists gathered in Santa
Clara on Friday to help allay the fears of Americans that good jobs are being
exported, or risk political and economic backlash.
"Workers in the U.S. are concerned about outsourcing, as I'm sure you know.
And I think they have a right go be," Clinton told about 3,000 people
attending a conference sponsored by the alumni of the Indian Institutes of
Technology. "If the standard of living and the quality of life falls in
reality and in perception and in any way decreases in the United States, our
bilateral cooperation and partnerships could very well suffer in the long
run."
Speaking via satellite from New Orleans, Clinton also warned that global
business and government leaders are advised to help keep Americans in jobs or
suffer the consequences.
"If the United States continues to outsource jobs to India in increasingly
large numbers, people will begin to feel insecure and may very well seek more
protection against what they view as unfair competition," she said.
"America is not just a marketplace to get a foothold in. It's a place to make
lasting investments that will create jobs and economic growth for everyone,"
she added.
While Clinton has been a strong backer of free trade and pro-business
immigration policies, and cited the "great accomplishments of globalization"
during her speech, as a Democratic presidential candidate who is trying to woo
labor backing and middle-class voters, she is also highlighting the negative
impacts.
"I am concerned that trade is becoming a zero-sum game, instead of being a
means to lift up all who participate," she said, citing statistics that show
while American workers have become more productive this decade, their median
income has declined.
She said America should be viewed "as a land of consumers and innovators, as a
marketplace and a talent pool. We can promote shared prosperity that allows us
to lead the global economy in our race to the top, not to the bottom."
She described a global economy as an upside down pyramid "with economic growth
resting on the shoulders of the American consumer," adding that U.S.
consumers are "literally fueling growth throughout the world."
She said growing economies rely on American workers having a high enough
standard of living to buy products from them. "So if globalization pushes down
U.S. wages, other countries will be affected."
Clinton also reiterated her call to expand the H-1B program that allows
companies to bring in skilled foreign workers who "contribute greatly to our
U.S. technology development." She said she would use fees collected from the
visas to train American workers and said the U.S. government has an urgent
responsibility to create new programs to produce more college graduates,
particularly in math and science.
"She challenged us. That's what a leader should do," said Subhash Tantry, CEO
of Fox Technologies of Palo Alto.
Clinton had planned to appear in person, but organizers announced Thursday she
would deliver her remarks via satellite. Clinton's U.S. Senate spokesman cited
her schedule, saying it was logistically not possible for her to make the trip
to California. Instead, she spent Friday meeting with the United Steelworkers
candidates' forum in Cleveland and then traveled to speak in New Orleans at a
music festival, one that Barack Obama had appeared at on Thursday.
Although some said they were disappointed not to see Clinton in person,
attendees were promised if they handed in their business cards they would be
returned with a Clinton autograph.
Contact Mary Anne Ostrom at (415) 477-3794 or mostrom@mercurynews.com
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http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/0274514.htm
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) 2007 Global Alumni Conference Kicks Off
on July 6, 2007
Hillary Clinton, Jeff Immelt and Arun Sarin to Keynote; More Than 4,000
Expected to Attend July 05, 2007: 04:26 PM EST
WHAT:
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) annual alumni conference starts
tomorrow and will run through July 8 at the Santa Clara Convention Center.
This renowned event, open to the public, brings together influential business
and technology leaders, such as the CEOs of GE (NYSE: GE) and Vodafone (NYSE:
VOD), political icons like Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), as well as a host
of acclaimed Nobel laureates and successful entrepreneurs. The event is packed
with compelling keynotes, in-depth panels and breakout sessions.
A wide range of topics are being discussed at this year's conference,
including corporate leadership, entrepreneurship, academic excellence and
social transformation. Each panel will show how IITians have become strong
leaders in government, business, society and academia.
The event kicks off today with the first ever IIT "Women in IT" event at the
Santa Clara Hyatt, which will focus on the increasing number of IIT female
alumni and their success in a predominantly male environment.
Speakers discussed how they translated their unique experience into academic,
business, government and non-profit environments.
Additional information, complete conference agenda and list of confirmed
panelists can be found at: http://www.iit2007.org/program.htm
For free video content from IIT 2007, please log on to
www.thenewsmarket.com/iit2007 to preview and request video. You can receive
broadcast-standard video digitally or by tape from this site. Registration and
video is free to the media.
WHERE / WHEN
July 5, 2007
IIT Women Alumni Day
Santa Clara Hyatt
Hyatt Regency Santa Clara
5101 Great America Parkway
Santa Clara, California, 95054
Event Begins at 9:00 a.m. PT
10:15 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Marissa Mayer, Google VP, Search Products
& User Experience - Opening Keynote Panel July 6
- 8, 2007 IIT Alumni Conference Santa Clara Convention Center
5001 Great America Parkway
Santa Clara, CA 95054
Friday, July 6: Event Begins at 9:00 a.m. PT
9:15 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. Jeffrey Immelt, GE CEO - Welcome Keynote
4:30 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. Hillary Clinton, Senator, New York - Closing
Keynote via satellite Saturday, July 7: Event
Begins at 9:00 a.m. PT
9:00 a.m. - 9:45 a.m. Arun Sarin, Vodafone CEO - Opening Keynote
4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. Bob Dynes, University of California
President - Closing Keynote Sunday, July 8: Event
Begins at 9:00 a.m. PT
12:15 p.m. - 12:45 p.m. Rajat Gupta, McKinsey & Company Sr.
Partner - Closing Remarks
WHO:
The conference is designed to appeal to a wide variety of audiences,
including:
- IIT Alumni, spouses, significant others, families
- Students
- General admission
- Press
REGISTRATION: Registration is open until Friday, July 6 through the website
at: http://www.acteva.com/ttghits.cfm?EVA_ID=30584 or by calling +1 866 462
2838 (Monday through Friday 6 a.m. - 5 p.m. PT).
To register by fax, please download the registration form and fax it to +1
415 276 2399.
Registration form can be found at:
http://www.iit2007.org/images/FaxRegistrationIIT2007.pdf
To register for the Women in IT event, please send an email to wad@iit2007.org
To register as an attending member of the US press, please send an email
To register as an attending member of the India press, please send an email
About Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
The Indian Institutes of Technology, or IITs, are a group of seven autonomous
engineering and technology oriented institutes of higher education established
and declared as Institutes of National Importance by the Government of India.
Collectively, the IITs are widely regarded as amongst the leading educational
institutes in the world. In order of establishment, the seven IITs are located
at Kharagpur, Mumbai (Bombay), Chennai (Madras), Kanpur, Delhi, Guwahati, and
Roorkee.
About PanIIT
PanIIT is a global association of IIT alumni whose mission is for the IITs to
be acknowledged among the world's leading institutions in academics, research
excellence and innovation, and for its alumni to be recognized as leaders and
innovators in their chosen fields. PanIIT-USA is the organization of alumni
associations and alumni organizations that represent the alumni of the "IIT
System" in the United States of America. It includes all students --
undergraduate, post-graduate, doctoral and post-doctoral, and former faculty
members -- from all seven IIT campuses, and any IITs that are established in
future.
Add to Digg Bookmark with del.icio.us Add to Newsvine
For more information:
Ashu Garg
Marketing and PR Lead, PanIIT USA
Tel: +1 650 520 3900
iit@ashugarg.com
Sean Mills
Bite Communications for PanIIT
Tel: +1 212 857 9386
sean.mills@bitepr.com
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