Youngsters to lead India's tech revolution

Saying that the U.S. needs to wake up to the reality of India's technological revolution being led by IIT-educated "young men and women under the age of 27", President Barack Obama's nominee for deputy commerce secretary said countries like India, China, Brazil and Russia were going to pose a major challenge to American dominance in the coming years.

"Today, we find ourselves competing not only with companies of great capacity, but countries intent on establishing dominance in the growth areas of the 21st century," Dennis Hightower, Obama's nominee for deputy secretary of commerce, said at his confirmation hearing Wednesday.

"Countries such as Brazil, Russia, India and China -- often referred to as the BRIC countries -- are now employing aggressive industrial policies reminiscent of Japan's strategic commitment to the electronics industry in the 1960s," he said.

Referring to his recent business travels in India, Hightower said he was "floored by that country's commitment to reinvesting in technology and the implications for the United States".

Visiting "a veritable who's who of global technology giants" in Bangalore, the would-be Obama official said he "was struck not only by the technological inroads being made in newly designed, avant-garde factories and laboratories, but also by the fact that this technological revolution was often being led by young men and women under the age of 27.

"By and large, these young people were not educated in the United States like many of their fathers -- at MIT, Cal Tech, or Rennselaer, for example -- but at the Indian Institutes of Technology."

Hightower noted there are "projections that place the United States in fourth place over the next 15-20 years in terms of consumerism, manufacturing capacity, and the growth of an entrepreneurial base that keeps pace with new global developments and delivery systems."

"This forecasted outcome, to my way of thinking, is unacceptable," he said stressing "we must re-establish the primacy of the United States as the world leader in innovation, creativity and excellence across the global economic spectrum.

"If America expects to lead, we must put our best minds on the toughest problems -- reforming the way America uses healthcare, consumes energy and educates our children," Hightower said.

"America must now act with a renewed sense of urgency" he said, as "our global competitors are neither standing still nor shy about taking action to exert their global economic ambitions".

Taken from : SLI

India is an 'absolutely critical country' for U.S.

U.S. President Barack Obama has despatched a personal letter to New Delhi making it clear that India is "an absolutely critical country" with which Washington is keen to work, a top official has said.

U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns, who is in New Delhi to make the first high level contact with the Manmohan Singh government since its return to power, would be delivering the "presidential letter", the envoy, Richard Holbrooke, told reporters Wednesday without providing details on the contents.

"It's a private letter," said Holbrooke. "But the important thing is that the number three person in the Department of State has gone to India to reaffirm immediately after the election,"said the U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"Burns is now beginning the dialogue with the newly elected government in an atmosphere of great positive feelings," he said. "And without getting into Indian politics, all I can say is that all of us - Secretary (of State) Hillary Clinton, Bill Burns, myself, President Obama - everyone looks forward to working with the newly elected Indian Government."

"He is carrying the messages that I would have carried if I had had time to go to New Delhi on this trip, but I couldn't do it," said the envoy, who visited Pakistan last week to assess relief efforts to help the estimated two million people who have fled a Pakistani offensive against the Taliban.

"All I can tell you is that this Administration believes that what happens in Afghanistan and Pakistan is of vital interest to our national security. And ...that India is a country that we must keep in the closest consultations with."

"And we consider India an absolutely critical country in the region," Holbrooke said. "They're not part of the problem, but they are vitally affected, and we want to work closely with them," he added explaining what some observers have described as a hole in Obama administration's foreign policy focused on Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"The Indians were very frank with us. They wanted to keep in touch with us during the election period, but they had to wait through the election, just like we do. It's the world's two greatest democracies."

Holbrooke, who visited New Delhi on his first two trips to the region, said next week he would be meeting the new Indian ambassador to the U.S., Meera Shankar, whom he already met twice.

Sources : Silicon India