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Changes in Skills Visa Policy in the U.S. Could Benefit Indian Professionals but Raise Labor Costs for Companies By Ignatius Chithelen  Knowledge@Wharton April 26, 2018 President Trump has issued an executive order directing some U.S. agencies to review the nonimmigrant, H-1B work visa policies, which at present allow companies to hire “skilled” foreign workers when employers say they cannot find qualified Americans. Trump has questioned the impact of the program, saying that it represses American wages by paying foreign workers less. The U.S. issues 85,000 H-1B visas annually, and extends or reissues another 100,000 visas,  according to Forbes . Last year, nearly 127,000 visas went to Indian nationals, about 21,700 to Chinese workers and 2,540 to Mexicans to round out the top three. Should the review lead to curtailing the visas, on first glance it looks likely to hit Indian professionals — and Indian tech companies in particular — the hardest. But in this opin

Subsidized Education Benefits Indian Professionals   By Ignatius Chithelen Summary: G overnment funding exceeded the total fees paid by my parents and me for my three degrees and school education in India. I had good teachers and a solid education and so owe, at the least, the true cost of my education in India. I hope to do this by providing free access to classic books of knowledge in the major Indian languages and expanding civil liberties. Extract from “Six Degrees of Education: From Teaching in Mumbai to Investment Research in New York”  by Ignatius Chithelen. Published in India Abroad November 25, 2016. What Indian Professionals Owe India for their Education I have three degrees from India, a BA in philosophy and an MA in political science from Mumbai University and an M Phil in economics from the Center for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram.   The total costs of my college and school education in India were negative. Overall I got more governme

The Bamboo Ceiling for Asians at U.S. Colleges Extract from "Six Degrees of Education: From Teaching in Mumbai to Investment Research in New York" by Ignatius Chithelen  Published by India Today Online August 3, 2016  Why Second Generation Indians in the U.S. will not be as Successful S ince the 1980s, several million Indians have studied at U.S. colleges. Over a million have stayed on in the U.S. through employment visas and many of them have become successful as professionals and some as entrepreneurs. They include chief executives of major U.S. companies such as Sundar Pichai at Google, Satya Nadella at Microsoft, Shantanu Narayen at software vendor Adobe, Indra Nooyi at Pepsico and Rakesh Sachdev of chemicals and bio-chemicals supplier Sigma-Aldrich. Businesses founded or co-founded by Indians in the U.S. include Cascade Communications, Daisy Systems, Epitome, Hotmail, Junglee, Morphotek, Solar Junction and TIBCO Software.  Some Indian en

How Indian Immigrants in the U.S. can Counter Racist Attacks Opinion Piece by Ignatius Chithelen published by India O April 2017 Between January and April 2017, there were at least three physical attacks on Indian immigrants in the US, resulting in two deaths. One of the those killed was 32 year old engineer  Srinivas Kuchibhotla, in photo below, with his wife : It is in the self-interest of Indian billionaires and chief executives in the U.S. to become major philanthropists, funding human rights, civil liberties, social and political groups, to counter racist attacks, says Ignatius Chithelen in this opinion piece published by India Today Online. "Several Indian immigrants have achieved major financial success as founders and investors, mostly in technology companies and as chief executives of major US corporations. "Only Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and six other Indian billionaires, in India and the US, have signed the Giving Pledge initiated by American billionair

The Billionaire And The Drug Price-Fixing Scandal. Forbes article Satish Mehta founded Emcure Pharmaceuticals in 1981. In 2011 Emcure bought U.S. based Heritage Pharmaceuticals founded by Jeffrey Glazer. In 2016 Heritage had U.S. sales of $265 million, 40% of Emcure's total sales. An article in Forbes , by Nathan Vardi and Nazneen Karmali April 25, 2017, says that, " In September 2015, Satish Mehta, the billionaire chief executive of the Indian drug company Emcure Pharmaceuticals, wrote an effusive email congratulating Jeffrey Glazer, the CEO of his U.S. crown jewel, Heritage Pharmaceuticals, on a job well done. "In a short span of 4.5 years, you have taken Heritage to another level," Mehta wrote, adding that he considered Glazer to be "an integral part of our family." In January this year, the article continues, "Glazer pleaded guilty to violating U.S. antitrust law by conspiring with manufacturers to fix the prices of generic drugs. Glazer is

The Man Bringing Digital Stars Lilly Singh & Others To The Stage Videos of Lilly Singh's Youtube channel "Superwoman" have been streamed over 1.8 billion times, making her a media hit. In 2015 she went from a digital presence to a live tour, including performance at the Bhabha auditorium in Mumbai. The organizer of Lilly Singh's tour as well as similar live shows by other digital stars is Michael Mills. A recent article in Forbes  describes Mills' role: "In May 2015, more than 2,000 screaming fangirls, many with tears in their eyes, packed the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre in Mumbai for the first stop on a world tour. Unlike typical performances at the theater, which usually hosts ballets, operas and orchestras, this one featured a YouTube star, Lilly Singh. For most audience members in Mumbai, this was their first opportunity to see Singh in person.......her fans were well acquainted with her stand-up routines, which often riff on her Punja

Salil Deshpande, Ravi Mhatre & Promod Haque on Forbes list of 100 Best Venture Capitalists in 2017 Indians on the Forbes 100 Best Venture Capitalists list for 2017 include Salil Deshpande of Bain Capital Ventures, Ravi Mhatre of Lightspeed Ventures, Promod Haque of Norwest Venture Partners  Others on the list include: Asheem Chandna Greylock Partners "Asheem Chandna is on a hot streak as the enterprise software guru at top venture firm Greylock. The investor co-led the Series A in AppDynamics in 2008 on behalf of the firm; in January of 2017, Cisco swooped in to acquire the app performance management company shortly before it was set to go public for $3.7 billion.......  Born in India, Asheem Chandna joined Greylock in 2003 after serving as vice president of business development and product management at Check Point Software..... When not at Greylock, Asheem can be found hiking and running around Stanford University's campus...." Hema

Abraham Verghese's "Cutting For Stone" The New York Times  Sunday Book Review Doctors and Sons By ERICA WAGNER February  6, 2009 “I will not cut for stone,” runs the text of the Hippocratic oath, “even for patients in whom the disease is manifest; I will leave this operation to be performed by practitioners, specialists in this art.” Those words provide an epigraph partway through Abraham Verghese’s first novel, “Cutting for Stone,” and also explain the surname of its narrator, Marion Stone, along with his twin brother, Shiva, and their father, the almost entirely absent surgeon Thomas Stone. Absent in body only: in spirit, Thomas’s disappearance after their birth

An extract from Daljit Nagra's verse-novel, Ramayana (Publisher Faber & Faber in October 2013) from Prologue  Get Raaaaaaaaaavana! The Gods seek help from Vishnu after Raavana, having won great powers (boons), becomes destructive. Lord of the Cosmos, Vishnu,  was brought back to heaven from a stellar meditation by many gods now stooped at his feet. Said one, semi-stooped in the saffron light, 'O Lord, whilst we in thousand day prayers  for peace are bent  Raavana is bishboshing our kingdoms!' Another god butted in, 'O Lord, with only a  wink he splash even our oceans into a coma.' No wonder the gods were gurgling with collywobbles - Raavana was toasting  their earthly and galactic worlds! By soaking the energy from everything he nulled Raavana was now a supreme being becoming! But who was this scallywag, this goonda? Lord of the Cosmos, Vishnu, flashed umpteen visions to the

India’s Cricket Victory: Can It Lead to Success in Other Sports?  By Ignatius Chithelen Knowledge@Wharton April 7, 2011 India has just won the Cricket World Cup. Everyone — from industrialists to state governments  and the country’s cricket board — is going to great lengths to reward the cricketers for their success. The adulation will likely encourage a generation of schoolchildren to participate in the sport and view captain M.S. Dhoni as a role model for coolness under pressure and the desire to be a good citizen.   But cricket is not enough, says Ignatius Chithelen,  managing partner of Banyan Tree Capital Management, a New York-based investment management firm. There must be adequate investment in other sports, too, Chithelen argues in this opinion piece. For full article visit:  Can India's Cricket Victory lead to Wins in Other Sports?

Future of the Indian Ru pee Tied to Oil Imports By Ignatius Chithelen Knowledge@Wharton November 15, 2013 The weakness or strength of the Indian rupee will continue to be largely determined by the level and costs of the country’s crude oil imports, according to Ignatius Chithelen, managing partner of Banyan Tree Capital Management,   a New York-based investment management firm. For full article visit:  Future of Indian Rupee Tied to Oil Imports

The Best Indian Food in New York City You rarely get the best food at the most expensive Indian restaurants, given the amount of labor, fresh ingredients and skill involved in cooking good Indian dishes. Only one of two dishes are good.  So, instead of paying high prices, you can have good Indian food at cheap and moderately priced restaurants. The restaurants listed here serve good, cheap to moderately priced Indian food. The Best Indian Vegetarian Food in New York City: CHENNAI GARDEN Buffet lunch weekdays: $9.95 Address :  127 E 28th St, New York, NY 10016 Hours :  Open today  ·  11:30AM–3PM ,  5–10PM Phone :  (212) 685-7301 Menu:   places.singleplatform.com The Best Cheap Indian Non Vegetarian Food in New York MINAR:  Cheap with self-service and plastic chairs and formica tables. Various locations: 5 west 31 street;  44 street lex and 3rd, near 3rd ave south side;  46 street 138 west