Indian University Alumni Share a Global Success Bethesda Reunion Shows Worldwide Reach of India's Educational Jewel
By S. Mitra Kalita Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, May 20, 2005; E03
Foreign ministers, corporate recruiters, venture capitalists and former General Electric Co. chief executive Jack Welch plan to attend a college reunion in Bethesda this weekend -- and it's not even their own.
That's just the kind of lure thousands of alumni from the highly selective Indian Institutes of Technology can have. And that they will gather nearly 7,500 miles away from the nearest campus in New Delhi underscores the weekend's theme: technology without borders.
"We are in a unique time in history," said Sudhakar Shenoy, the chief executive of Reston-based Information Management Consultants Inc. and co-chair of the weekend's event. "There's going to be a lot of talk about how can we in the United States work closely with our brethren in India. How can we bring everyone closer together, Americans and Indians."
IIT is a consortium of seven schools located in India that were founded after the country's 1947 independence from Britain. The schools pride themselves on an admissions system that features a rigorous screening test taken by as many as 180,000 people a year. Those who pass the initial test must then take a six-hour exam in math, physics and chemistry. Interviews winnow down the final list to 2,500 -- an acceptance rate of less than 2 percent. By comparison, Harvard University accepted a record low 9.1 percent for its class of 2009.
After graduating, "IITians," tend to have their pick of jobs, often in the United States and Europe. Corporate recruiters cram campus job fairs, trying to line up interviews as early as possible so they can preempt competing offers.
IIT alumni have made their way to the executive suites of major corporations. Vinod Khosla was founding chief executive of Sun Microsystems Inc., and Rajat Gupta served as managing director of McKinsey & Co.
Not so long ago, graduates who left India faced criticism for perpetuating a brain drain from developing countries. But in a globalized world, it has become possible -- even cost-conscious -- to straddle business interests, not to mention personal lives, on multiple shores.
"I am in California, Fairfax and India," said Arjun Malhotra, chairman and chief executive of Headstrong Inc., a global consulting firm. "All these people who went abroad. . . are now going back. It's now seen as a brain gain."
Malhotra said recent graduates seem harder to lure to the United States because they see the prospect of prosperity in India, where software and related services have grown into a $12.8 billion industry. His company has hired 60 graduates of this year's class, known as "freshers." Most of the new hires will stay in India but train in the United States and make frequent client visits.
The surge of interest in giving back to both India and IIT is not coincidental, alumni say. In 1965, a change in U.S. immigration law allowed highly educated Indians to make the United States their home. Many IIT graduates took advantage of the policy change because opportunities in India were limited.
"So if you look back, the influx in the mid-'60s is when the IIT graduates started coming in," said Anil Bhandari, IIT Class of '69 and a senior vice president at Smith Barney. "Now they are getting to a point when they want to give back to society. With the multinationals going into India, there are a lot of opportunities within India."
This weekend's event, part-reunion, part-technology conference, will bring in alumni from around the world. It will feature panel discussions, networking sessions and a speech by Welch. In between workshops on pharmaceuticals, defense and government research, alumni will break out by campus and class for cocktail parties, picnics and informal dinners.
Like alumni at any university, IIT graduates fiercely debate the future of their alma mater. Should the institutes focus on nanotechnology and genetics? Or should they focus on spreading recent prosperity into villages and transform farming techniques?
Recognizing that the Next Big Idea might lurk among these entrepreneurs, outside interests will be on hand, vying for their attention. Fairfax County is hosting a breakfast to announce a collaboration between IIT-Kharagpur and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology to coordinate research and faculty exchanges.
"This was a great opportunity to firmly implant the name 'Fairfax County' in their minds when they do expand into U.S. markets," said Gerald L. Gordon, president of Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, which has offices in Tel Aviv and Bangalore.
With IIT grads in top ranks of Fortune 500 companies, alumni say American friends are starting to rank the institution with Harvard and MIT.
"When I came in 1972, they did not think of India for being the citadel for higher education," said Suresh Shenoy, a senior vice president at IMC and the younger brother of its chief executive.
Shenoy related that when his son, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology student, was asked by a professor where his parents went to college, he replied: "My dad went to IIT and my mom went to MIT."
In turn, his son's MIT professor said, " 'Your dad went to IIT?' " Suresh Shenoy recounted, mimicking an incredulous yet impressed inflection.
"My wife hates it," Shenoy said.