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Bill Gates slams US visa policy |
Slamming American immigration policies, Microsoft Chairperson Bill Gates has said the US was shutting the door on the best and the brightest at a time when the country needed it the most.
Gates, one of the most vocal in the industry to constantly plead for an increase in skilled worker visas, told the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions that the US must also come to terms with the issue of permanent residency over and above what it intended to do with the H1B visas.
The Microsoft chairperson slammed the visa policies, that has now come to heavily restrict foreign-born US college graduates from working in the US and limit citizenship or permanent residency opportunities for scientists and engineers.
“It makes no sense to tell well-trained, highly skilled individuals many of whom are educated at our top universities that they are not welcome in the US. “We have to welcome the great minds in this world, not shut them out,” Gates said. “Unfortunately, America’s immigration policies are driving away the world’s best and brightest precisely when we need them most.” He also made the point that if the US did not make it easier for foreign scientists and engineers to obtain permanent US residency, the talent would flow to India and China.
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IIT Mumbai to get convention centre from NRI
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Former Indian American banker Victor Menezes has contributed $3 million toward a convention centre at IIT Mumbai. Menezes, an electrical engineering graduate of IIT Mumbai, has contributed the funds to IIT Bombay Heritage Fund. According to Menezes, the new convention centre will be a catalyst for collaborative discussion and development across the institute.
The centre will have a state-of-the art auditorium with a capacity of 300, a seminar hall, classrooms and meeting rooms. In addition, the top two floors will be occupied by the Manuel Menezes Center Civil Engineering Annex. The foundation stone laying ceremony for the centre was held recently at the Powai campus.
According to IIT Mumbai Director Ashok Misra, the centre will be functional within a year, in time for the start of IIT Mumbai’s Golden Jubilee Celebrations.
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Trinidad and Tobago woos India for more investment
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Trinidad and Tobago is seeking increased investment from India by forging deeper cooperation in trade and commerce. “We have come here to entice your investors to Trinidad and Tobago,” said Kenneth C. Valley, Minister of Trade and Industry of Trinidad and Tobago.
In March, Valley led a business delegation of over 70 members to India. “We want your manufacturers to locate their base in T and T, by which they can have access to other bigger markets of US and Latin America,” Valley told a conference organised by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO). The petroleum-based economy of Trinidad and Tobago, whose gross domestic product is growing rapidly, wants India to invest in their energy sector, tourism, steel, food processing, information and communication technology (ICT) among others.
Adding that the current export to Trinidad and Tobago from India has crossed $67 million, Subhash Mittal, convener, committee on export promotion, FIEO, said: “We need to take this figure to billions of dollars.”
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LARGEST AMERICAN TOWN MAKES HISTORY ON INDIA’S REPUBLIC DAY |
| Saluting The
Republic: Hon. Donald Clavin, Hon. Angie Cullin, Mr. Mohinder Taneja, Hon. Kate Murray, Indu Jaiswal, Hon. Anthony Santino, Dr. Parveen Chopra, Hon. Dorothy Goosby, Hon. Edward Ambrosino, Hon. Mark Bonilla |
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Americans believe Indians are great friends who come from a democratic country and make the best use of opportunities offered by the US. |
For the first time the largest town in America, the Town of Hempstead in New York unfurled the flag of India side by side with the American flag to recognize the great contributions made by the Indian community in America and to mark a new level of accomplishments in Indo-US relations.
Hon. Tony Santino unfurled the flag on January 26, 2007 in a temperature of 22 degrees below zero. Hon. Kate Murray, Supervisor of the Town of Hempstead accompanied by the entire Town Board consisting of Hon. Anthony Santino Senior Councilman, Hon. Angie Cullin, Hon. Dorothy Goosby, Hon. Gary Hudes, Hon. James Darcy, Hon. Edward Ambrosino, Hon Mark Bonilla Town Clerk, Hon. Donald Clavin Receiver of Taxes, and accompanied by Hon. Dan Palmieri New York State Supreme Court Judge, Hon. Rick Lawrence New York State Supreme Court Judge, Hon. Judge Jerald Carter of District Criminal Courts, former Judges John Pessala and Jane Shrenkel and her husband Louis took part in the Republic Day celebrations along with 250 prominent American leaders and Indian citizens representing Irish, Italian, Israeli, African American, Hispanic, Korean, Chinese & Indian community.
The Indian consulate was represented by Mr. Praveen Kumar as Chief Guest. It was truly representative of America to celebrate India’s Republic Day in New York.
Keynote Speaker Dr. Parveen Chopra, a veteran community Leader who has been given national awards like the Dr. Martin Luther King Award and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor for making significant contributions to American life, indicated that President George W. Bush while signing the Henry J. Hyde India-US Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act on December 18, 2006 where he represented the Asian American Coalition USA Inc. that he founded comprising 13 Asian countries at the White House, indicated that Americans have come to believe that Indians are great friends who come from a democratic country and make the best use of opportunities offered by America.
Dr. Chopra told the cross-section of elected leaders from many Asian and European communities that you are our very best friends who have come to celebrate India’s 57th Republic Day. It marks the adoption of India’s Constitution that was framed by Dr. Ambedkar who came from one of India’s oppressed castes and studied at Columbia University, New York.
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Indian American leads research team |
A team of neuroscientists led by an Indian American has recorded groundbreaking recordings of activity in two brain regions during deep sleep.
Mayank Mehta, assistant professor of neuroscience at Brown University in Rhode Island, made the startling discovery, according to “Brown Daily”, a student newspaper.
Mehta and his team found that the electrical activity in the brain cells of sleeping mice isn’t completely random. They observed a “dialogue” between the hippocampus and the neocortex areas of the brain where memories are made and stored.
According to Mehta, memories are not stored during sleep; instead sleep acts as a way to erase memories and create “a fresh page” for new memories.
Brown University is a private university located in Providence, Rhode Island, and was founded in 1764 as Rhode Island College. It is the third-oldest institution of higher education in New England and the seventh oldest in the United States.
“We’ve known for a century that the hippocampus and the neocortex are anatomically connected. But this is the first time we’ve seen the effect of this connectivity in the brains of live animals,” Mehta said.
Mehta’s work was supported by the Rhode Island Foundation, the Salomon Foundation, the Mental Health Research Association, the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.
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