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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