Indians in US

Indians a driving force behind tech startups in US

Houston, Jan. 4 (PTI): Indian immigrants are a significant driving force behind the creation of new engineering and technology companies in the United States in the past decade than their counterparts from the UK, China, Taiwan and Japan put together.

Of an estimated 73-hundred US tech startups founded by immigrants, 26 per cent have Indian founders, CEOs, presidents or head researchers, a new study says.

"Indians have beaten the Chinese in start-up hotbeds like Silicon Valley with a share of 15.5 per cent, up from 7 per cent between 1980 to 1998, " says the study, "Silicon Valley's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs", by researchers in the master of engineering management programme at the Pratt School of Engineering at the Duke University.

The study, which covered 28,766 firms with annual sales of more than $ 1 million and 20 or more employees, comes nearly eight years after an influential report from the University of California, Berkeley, on the impact of foreign-born entrepreneurs.

"This study shows the tremendous contribution immigrants in general and Indians in particular are making to the US economy and global competitiveness. This is a win-win for America and for the immigrants that make it here", Vivek Wadhwa, Delhi-born Duke's executive in residence and the founder of two tech startups in North Carolina's Research Triangle said.

Wadhwa, project's lead researcher, stressed that "the country should make the most of its ability to "get the best and brightest from around the world."

Indians constitute less than one per cent of the US population and are starting many times the businesses as other groups. They are creating jobs and contributing tens of billions to the US economy. Without Indian entrepreneurs, it would not be the same", Wadhwa said.

AnnaLee Saxenian, study co-author and dean of the School of Information at UC-Berkeley, estimated immigrants founded about 25 per cent of Silicon Valley tech companies in 1999.

The Duke study found the percentage had more than doubled, to 52 per cent in 2005. The research debunks some recent myths about the notion that immigrants who come to the United States take jobs from Americans.

"The advantage of entrepreneurs is that they're generally creating new opportunities and new wealth that didn't even exist before them," Saxenian said.

Just by leaving your home country, you're taking a risk, and that means you're willing to take risks in business. You put them in an environment that supports entrepreneurship, and this is the logical outcome."

Immigrants from the UK set up 7.1 per cent of the companies, followed by China with 6.9 per cent and Taiwan with 5.8 per cent.

Immigrant entrepreneurs' companies employed 450,000 workers and generated $ 52 billion in sales in 2005, according to the survey.

The share of Chinese and Taiwanese start-ups, which was 17 per cent in 1990-98 period, came down to 12.8 per cent between 1995 and 2005. The report adds that the number of Indian scientists and engineers in Silicon Valley has grown by 646 per cent between 1990 and 2000.

SB...U still awake ?....This article was published in "The Hindu".

Herez the URL -

http://www.samachar.com/showurl.htm?rurl=http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200701040940.htm?headline=Indians~a~driving~force~behind~tech~startups~in~US

SB ...Last time we had an argumet U spoke about Indian armed forces commmiting atrocities against people in NE India. Are U from that part of the country and do U really feel that anti-india sentiments have solid reasons ?

"Kind of ironic don't you think for a place that has oil and not to mention supplies 40% of the world's tea"

Oil as in Assam...Ok. So what in Ur opinion is the root cause for per capita income is Assam being lower than the national average ? Is the Union Government usurping the resources and diverting the source revenues to other states ?

And do U have thoughts of NE states actually not belonging to India and attaining independence at some point of time in future ?

SB I would like to have a lengthy debate on this. Personally I feel that India is more of an abstract notion of a "nation" rather than an entity carved out of similar ethnicities. Itz a pledge and an oath. I am sure I can understand what kind of discrimination U may have witnessed...But I would bring out more points later.

Am not a fan of Indian federation policy wise either. I know that we have virtually abandoned NE. An eternal question for me has been - Why NE populace has been subjected to such neglect for decades ? Frankly I have no census data on how many are pained, but personally I would like to stick with the unity sentiment.

" I do think that Hindi being the National Language was a mistake. Alot of smaller cultures have been sidestepped so that people would except the larger culture. "

Perhaps it was a mistake. But we needed an official/standard language of communication and the choice boiled down to hindi since it was spoken and used by the majority. The other common strand was English but immediately after independence the fervor was against anything which was foreign.

As for the imposition of mainland culture on others, it was largely a brain-child of over zealous congressmen of the yore. The whole construct wa meant to mask reality and indeed was short-sighted. They are still adept at doing it !

India was never ever a nation. At best it was a confederation. And complacent as we ever are ,people from the hindi belt took the fringe states for granted and in fact in myriad wayz contributed to their alienation.

I wont agree with U that NE never shared any history with other states since the ties and connections go back to the days of Mahabharata. Of course that is an epic and that legend is not actually verified. Yes, there are differences when U come down to the level of race/genetic content , but otherwise the cultures arent that far from each other.

"18% of a country's population is a majority?"

Am sure if U add up the population of UP, Bihar, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, MP and Punjab then the figure of 18 % wouldnot sound appropriate. Of course if U want to identify the dialects separately , then the picture will be different. But ppl living in these states identify hindi as mother tongue...a common strand.

7-8 states which recognise hindi as state language in a country of around 28 states and the rest 21 states are "fringe"? "

I feel U tend to miss the spirit too often. "Fringe" was used in geographical context and had no disparaging underpinnings.

"Even if you consider the dialects, you are making some 700 million people adjust to 300 million people. That doesn't seem logical."

Actually it should add up to close to 450 million which is 45 % and a monolithic chunk which can relate to Hindi. Anywayz am not keen to defend Hindi as a choice. Just getting the facts straight.

And points raised by Cap were pertinent.