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Nokia E75 Smartphone : Nokia unveils a new addition to its E-series Smartphone line-up, the Nokia E75, which is the first to ship with the company's new email user interface. The Nokia E75 cell phone also comes standard with Nokia Messaging that gives people the most efficient solution for accessing the world's consumer and corporate email on the go. Added to the Nokia Messaging service, the Nokia E75 handset comes with full Nokia Maps and assisted GPS with integrated 3-month license for turn-by-turn navigation, and a great gaming experience with N-Gage on board. With Ovi Files important files stored on a Personal Computer can be remotely managed and shared, even when your PC is switched off.
India Elections 2009 - Congress, BJP, election commission
India General Election 2009
The Lok Sabha consists of 552 members, comprising 530 members who represent the States, up to 20 members who stand for the Union Territories and 2 members from the Anglo-Indian Community who are nominated by the President, if they are not adequately represented. The people of India directly elect the members of the Lok Sabha. A policy of adult franchise through a secret ballot is exercised in elections in India. Recently the system of electronic voting has been introduced to enable a more economic and fair election process. Each state has a fixed number of seats allotted and each Lok Sabha seat has a clearly defined area. The electoral machinery is centralized in an independent statutory body called the Election Commission. The Commission is responsible for the 'superintendence, direction and control' of the electoral rolls for all elections to Parliament and to the State Legislatures and also for conducting the elections.
The Lok Sabha consists of 552 members, comprising 530 members who represent the States, up to 20 members who stand for the Union Territories and 2 members from the Anglo-Indian Community who are nominated by the President, if they are not adequately represented. The people of India directly elect the members of the Lok Sabha. A policy of adult franchise through a secret ballot is exercised in elections in India. Recently the system of electronic voting has been introduced to enable a more economic and fair election process. Each state has a fixed number of seats allotted and each Lok Sabha seat has a clearly defined area. The electoral machinery is centralized in an independent statutory body called the Election Commission. The Commission is responsible for the 'superintendence, direction and control' of the electoral rolls for all elections to Parliament and to the State Legislatures and also for conducting the elections.
Sachin Tendulkar reached his 43rd century in one-day internationals and his 91st century for India in all forms of the game
achin Tendulkar made 163 from 133 balls before retiring hurt as India amassed a record-breaking 392-4 batting first in the third one-day international against New Zealand. His innings included 16 fours and five sixes or 94 runs from boundaries and helped India to the highest total in a one-day international in New Zealand, surpassing New Zealand's 350 against Australia.
Tendulkar's score was the second-highest individual total in a one-day international in New Zealand, after the 180 of Australia's Matthew Hayden, and ensured India reached its highest total against New Zealand, surpassing its 376-2 at Hyderabad in 1999.
The score was India's highest against a major cricket nation in one-day internationals, having scored 413-5 against Bermuda in 2006. It was the ninth highest total by any country in one-day international cricket.
India's 18 sixes was also a record in a clash of Test-playing nations, and matched the mark set by the Netherlands against Bermuda.
Tendulkar reached 50 off 59 balls with seven fours, his century off 101 balls with 10 fours and two sixes and then, at an accelerating pace, his 150 of 127 balls with 15 fours and four sixes.
He was clearly impeded in the latter part of his innings by what appeared to be strained abdominal muscles, received treatment on several occasions and was in considerable pain when forced to stretch or twist. No word was immediately available from the Indian team on the seriousness of his injury.
After early partnerships of 15 for the first wicket with Virender Sehwag (3) and 50 for the second with Gautam Gambhir (15), Tendulkar put on 138 for the third wicket with Yuvraj Singh who made a superb 87.
Yuvraj took his runs from only 60 balls with 10 fours and six sixes, was often more aggressive than Tendulkar and ensured India were on target for a record total. The pair sharply accelerated India's scoring rate in a batting powerplay after the 20th over, lifting the run-rate from five to seven runs per over.
Tendulkar then put on a further 138 with India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni for the third wicket before retiring hurt when India were 338-3.
Dhoni made 68 from 58 balls and Suresh Raina an unbeaten 38 off 18 balls before the innings ended.
The Indian run-fest followed the decision of New Zealand's stand-in captain Brendon McCullum to send the tourists in after winning the toss. McCullum took over the captaincy from Daniel Vettori who was away to be with his wife who is expecting their third child.
India particularly savaged young seam bowler Tim Southee who conceded 105 runs from 10 overs, to become only the second bowler to concede more than 100 runs in a 50-over ODI. Australia's Mick Lewis gave up 113 from 10 overs against South Africa in 2006.
Tendulkar's score was the second-highest individual total in a one-day international in New Zealand, after the 180 of Australia's Matthew Hayden, and ensured India reached its highest total against New Zealand, surpassing its 376-2 at Hyderabad in 1999.
The score was India's highest against a major cricket nation in one-day internationals, having scored 413-5 against Bermuda in 2006. It was the ninth highest total by any country in one-day international cricket.
India's 18 sixes was also a record in a clash of Test-playing nations, and matched the mark set by the Netherlands against Bermuda.
Tendulkar reached 50 off 59 balls with seven fours, his century off 101 balls with 10 fours and two sixes and then, at an accelerating pace, his 150 of 127 balls with 15 fours and four sixes.
He was clearly impeded in the latter part of his innings by what appeared to be strained abdominal muscles, received treatment on several occasions and was in considerable pain when forced to stretch or twist. No word was immediately available from the Indian team on the seriousness of his injury.
After early partnerships of 15 for the first wicket with Virender Sehwag (3) and 50 for the second with Gautam Gambhir (15), Tendulkar put on 138 for the third wicket with Yuvraj Singh who made a superb 87.
Yuvraj took his runs from only 60 balls with 10 fours and six sixes, was often more aggressive than Tendulkar and ensured India were on target for a record total. The pair sharply accelerated India's scoring rate in a batting powerplay after the 20th over, lifting the run-rate from five to seven runs per over.
Tendulkar then put on a further 138 with India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni for the third wicket before retiring hurt when India were 338-3.
Dhoni made 68 from 58 balls and Suresh Raina an unbeaten 38 off 18 balls before the innings ended.
The Indian run-fest followed the decision of New Zealand's stand-in captain Brendon McCullum to send the tourists in after winning the toss. McCullum took over the captaincy from Daniel Vettori who was away to be with his wife who is expecting their third child.
India particularly savaged young seam bowler Tim Southee who conceded 105 runs from 10 overs, to become only the second bowler to concede more than 100 runs in a 50-over ODI. Australia's Mick Lewis gave up 113 from 10 overs against South Africa in 2006.
Vijay Mallya buys Mahatma Gandhi memorabilia worth Rs 9 crore
Confusion prevailed for hours in the run up to the auction of the Gandhi memorabilia late last night, but Bapu's belongings, which included his iconic round-rimmed spectacles, were finally bought by liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya for Rs 9.3 crore ($1.8 million) in New York amid high drama.
Bapu's family could not be happier that the possessions are returning home.
Tushar Gandhi, the Mahatma's great-grandson, said, "No one must have thought that Gandhi's items would be sold for such a high amount. I am feeling proud that the items have come to India, and have been bought by an Indian. I am very grateful to Mallya. He saved India's pride."
Gandhi also said that though the auction was riddled in controversy, he believed that everything happened for the best. "We didn't know that he was one of the bidders till the last moment," he added.
A representative of Mallya, Tony Bedi, placed the winning bid at New York's Antiquorum Auctioneers auction house despite protests in India and an injunction from Delhi High court seeking to halt the sale. Bedi later announced that the belongings, which also include a 1910 silver Zenith pocket watch, sandals, a bowl, a thali and letters of authenticity, would be returned to India for public display, but it was not clear whether they would be turned over to the government, as some officials have demanded.
He also added that his client (Mallya) is "really pleased with the purchase", as "he is bringing the heritage of the items back to India".
Though Gandhi said he did not want to make any suggestions to Mallya about what to do with Bapu's belongings, it would be nice if they were kept in the Gandhi Museum in Delhi.
"This museum is built for preserving such valuables, which allow more and more people to see it," he said.
But it may take a while till the memorabilia make their way to India. Though Mallya may have won the bid he will have to wait for two weeks before he gets possession of the items.
The US justice department has asked the auction house to hold the lot for two weeks pending a resolution between the new owner and the US and Indian governments.
Bapu's family could not be happier that the possessions are returning home.
Tushar Gandhi, the Mahatma's great-grandson, said, "No one must have thought that Gandhi's items would be sold for such a high amount. I am feeling proud that the items have come to India, and have been bought by an Indian. I am very grateful to Mallya. He saved India's pride."
Gandhi also said that though the auction was riddled in controversy, he believed that everything happened for the best. "We didn't know that he was one of the bidders till the last moment," he added.
A representative of Mallya, Tony Bedi, placed the winning bid at New York's Antiquorum Auctioneers auction house despite protests in India and an injunction from Delhi High court seeking to halt the sale. Bedi later announced that the belongings, which also include a 1910 silver Zenith pocket watch, sandals, a bowl, a thali and letters of authenticity, would be returned to India for public display, but it was not clear whether they would be turned over to the government, as some officials have demanded.
He also added that his client (Mallya) is "really pleased with the purchase", as "he is bringing the heritage of the items back to India".
Though Gandhi said he did not want to make any suggestions to Mallya about what to do with Bapu's belongings, it would be nice if they were kept in the Gandhi Museum in Delhi.
"This museum is built for preserving such valuables, which allow more and more people to see it," he said.
But it may take a while till the memorabilia make their way to India. Though Mallya may have won the bid he will have to wait for two weeks before he gets possession of the items.
The US justice department has asked the auction house to hold the lot for two weeks pending a resolution between the new owner and the US and Indian governments.
Gates discusses working with Rotary to end polio
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged US$255 million to help underwrite Rotary’s commitment to eradicate polio – the largest grant Rotary has ever received. That amount came in addition to the $100 million Gates Foundation challenge grant awarded in November 2007, which Rotary pledged to match dollar for dollar. In response to the new grant, Rotary committed to raising an additional $100 million by 30 June 2012. The total matching effort is called Rotary’s US$200 Million Challenge.
Gates made the announcement during an enthusiastically received surprise appearance at the International Assembly in San Diego, California, USA.
Assembly participants also learned that the governments of the United Kingdom and Germany had committed a combined $280 million to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Though that amount won’t count toward Rotary’s challenge, it will target the four countries where polio still rages: Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan.
Gates visited India in November and Nigeria in February.
Shortly after the announcement of the new grant, Gates sat down for a conversation with The Rotarian magazine. Below are a few excerpts. See the full interview in the May issue of The Rotarian.
Gates made the announcement during an enthusiastically received surprise appearance at the International Assembly in San Diego, California, USA.
Assembly participants also learned that the governments of the United Kingdom and Germany had committed a combined $280 million to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Though that amount won’t count toward Rotary’s challenge, it will target the four countries where polio still rages: Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan.
Gates visited India in November and Nigeria in February.
Shortly after the announcement of the new grant, Gates sat down for a conversation with The Rotarian magazine. Below are a few excerpts. See the full interview in the May issue of The Rotarian.
Commonwealth Games: Queen's Baton to be unveiled
As a countdown to the Commonwealth Games, the prototype of Queen's Baton will be unveiled here on Sunday by the organising committee of the Games.
Lt. Governor of Delhi Tejinder Khanna and Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi will do the honour of unveiling the prototype of the Queen's Baton.
The event organised by the ITDC will be held at the India Gate lawns tomorrow on the eve of Commonwealth Day, said a senior ITDC official.
The event includes a show by the "flying angels' performers of Toll Theatre from UK, dances by Kathak and Bharatnatyam artistes, performances of eminent pop singers and a contemporary dance troupe.
Commonwealth Day is celebrated on the second Monday of March every year to signify the post-colonial relationship between the nations of the former British empire.
The design of the multi-colour Queen's Baton has been specially created keeping the cultural diversity of the country in mind, said the official.
There will also be a spectacular fireworks as a grand finale of the cultural extravaganza.
The event will showcase spirit of India and the spirit of sport, said the official.
Lt. Governor of Delhi Tejinder Khanna and Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi will do the honour of unveiling the prototype of the Queen's Baton.
The event organised by the ITDC will be held at the India Gate lawns tomorrow on the eve of Commonwealth Day, said a senior ITDC official.
The event includes a show by the "flying angels' performers of Toll Theatre from UK, dances by Kathak and Bharatnatyam artistes, performances of eminent pop singers and a contemporary dance troupe.
Commonwealth Day is celebrated on the second Monday of March every year to signify the post-colonial relationship between the nations of the former British empire.
The design of the multi-colour Queen's Baton has been specially created keeping the cultural diversity of the country in mind, said the official.
There will also be a spectacular fireworks as a grand finale of the cultural extravaganza.
The event will showcase spirit of India and the spirit of sport, said the official.
Big Computer Brains Need Big Memory Bandwidth
As semiconductors try to get faster without breaking the laws of physics (not that researchers aren’t trying that, too) multicore processors have become all the rage. Quad-core chips are commonplace in servers nowadays, and six-core chips have been launched this year. But after a certain point adding more processor cores doesn’t improve performance for certain problems, because there’s not enough memory and bandwidth in the right places on the chip.
This is becoming an issue in the supercomputing world right now, and it’s even rearing its head in multicore embedded chips for devices from base stations to routers. It’s an problem that will meander its way down the computing food chain in a few years or so to affect servers and even smartphones, possibly changing the way chips are designed.
The issue is that, while some tasks can be broken up so each core solves part of the problem in parallel, other computing problems require each core to access more information in order to solve a compute problem. That information is located in memory that may or may not even be located on the chip.
It’s kind of like a mom dealing with the demands of half a dozen kids; it’s hard to process them and even harder to fulfill them thanks to physical limits, like only having one pair of hands. And unlike kids, chips can’t shout louder to have their information heard; they still have to go through a defined path on the silicon to get from the memory to the cores. As more cores try to request more information, the memory on the chip isn’t enough for all the data, and the channels of communication between the cores and the memory become bottlenecks.
Daniel Reed, Microsoft’s scalable and multicore computing strategist, calls this a hidden problem that’s just as big as the challenges of developing code that optimizes multicore chips.
Chip firms are aware of the issue. Intel’s Nehalem processor for servers adds more memory on chip for the multiple cores and tried to improve communications on the chip. Firms such as Texas Instruments (a TXN) have tweaked the designs of their ARM-based chips for cell phones to address the issue as well. Freescale has created a “fabric” inside some of its multicore embedded chips so they can share information more efficiently across a variety of cores.
But it’s possible that a straight redesign on the processor side is what’s needed. SiCortex, which makes a specially designed chip for the high-performance computing market, questions whether merely adding more memory, as Intel is doing, is the way to solve the issue. Its solution is closer to creating a communication fabric inside the device that scales with the number of cores that are added.
The contention is that adding more memory is kind of like bringing Dad in to help handle the kids’ multiple demands. It doesn’t scale if you keep adding more kids. As chipmakers look for alternative ways to handle this, startups such as?MetaRAM, which is pioneering dense memory; Acumem, which has a tool to spot bottlenecks causing an application to slow; or those designing their own chips, such as SiCortex, could lead the way to a solution.
This is becoming an issue in the supercomputing world right now, and it’s even rearing its head in multicore embedded chips for devices from base stations to routers. It’s an problem that will meander its way down the computing food chain in a few years or so to affect servers and even smartphones, possibly changing the way chips are designed.
The issue is that, while some tasks can be broken up so each core solves part of the problem in parallel, other computing problems require each core to access more information in order to solve a compute problem. That information is located in memory that may or may not even be located on the chip.
It’s kind of like a mom dealing with the demands of half a dozen kids; it’s hard to process them and even harder to fulfill them thanks to physical limits, like only having one pair of hands. And unlike kids, chips can’t shout louder to have their information heard; they still have to go through a defined path on the silicon to get from the memory to the cores. As more cores try to request more information, the memory on the chip isn’t enough for all the data, and the channels of communication between the cores and the memory become bottlenecks.
Daniel Reed, Microsoft’s scalable and multicore computing strategist, calls this a hidden problem that’s just as big as the challenges of developing code that optimizes multicore chips.
Chip firms are aware of the issue. Intel’s Nehalem processor for servers adds more memory on chip for the multiple cores and tried to improve communications on the chip. Firms such as Texas Instruments (a TXN) have tweaked the designs of their ARM-based chips for cell phones to address the issue as well. Freescale has created a “fabric” inside some of its multicore embedded chips so they can share information more efficiently across a variety of cores.
But it’s possible that a straight redesign on the processor side is what’s needed. SiCortex, which makes a specially designed chip for the high-performance computing market, questions whether merely adding more memory, as Intel is doing, is the way to solve the issue. Its solution is closer to creating a communication fabric inside the device that scales with the number of cores that are added.
The contention is that adding more memory is kind of like bringing Dad in to help handle the kids’ multiple demands. It doesn’t scale if you keep adding more kids. As chipmakers look for alternative ways to handle this, startups such as?MetaRAM, which is pioneering dense memory; Acumem, which has a tool to spot bottlenecks causing an application to slow; or those designing their own chips, such as SiCortex, could lead the way to a solution.
Obama's outsourcing policies - worries for everyone
After a decade of outsourcing helped transform India into much of the world's back office, Indians are worried that President Obama's new Administration - and the slowdown in the global economy - will cast a shadow over one of the fastest-growing sectors of their economy.
Obama's $787 billion stimulus plan will make it increasingly difficult for US companies receiving bailout money to hire foreigners on temporary work permits known as H-1B visas. The budget the President recently presented may also make it harder for US companies that send jobs overseas to receive tax benefits.
In India, where the $63 billion IT sector makes up almost 7 per cent of the national GDP, the moves are worrying government officials. Acting Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee groused about it over the weekend in an interview with CNN-IBN, a content partnership with Time Warner's CNN owned by India's TV18. "We will have to address this issue," said Mukherjee, whose ministry has spent the last five months trying to restart India's slowing economy with tax cuts and spending plans. "We are opposing protectionism, not only here but at every forum."
What's next?
Even more vexing for India's outsourcing industry is the lack of clarity about what might be coming next from the US. During a Feb. 24 speech to Congress, Obama said the Administration will eliminate "incentives for companies that ship jobs overseas," but the White House has not provided additional details.
A line item in Obama's budget titled "Implement international enforcement, reform deferral, and other tax reform policies" is the only hint tax experts in the US and in India have had about the policy. The estimates for tax revenues generated by that budget change start at $15 billion in 2009 and go up to $25 billion in 2012.
Those inexact estimates, says Rosanne Altshuler, co-director of the Tax Policy Center (a joint venture of two Washington think tanks, the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution), is an indication that the changes in tax policy have not yet been worked out, and likely will not become public until April.
Indians with a stake in the outsourcing industry are now waiting and watching. "Of course we are concerned," says Mohandas Pai, a board member and director of human resources at Infosys [Get Quote], India's second-largest IT company by revenues. "But nobody knows what the devil is being referred to (in the Obama statement)."
At a time when nearly 5 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits and another 1.7 million are working part-time jobs because they can't find full-time work, immigration and outsourcing have become key political issues in the US. As he did during his campaign, Obama has made clear during the first weeks of his Presidency that he intends to pursue policy changes to discourage outsourcing and the use of US work visas - especially H-1B visas - that could cost American jobs.
At no time has he made the exact policies clear, says Altshuler. Even within the government, the changes remain a mystery. Edward Kleinbard, the chief of staff for Congress' Joint Committee on Taxation, was forced to offer up a guess about the cryptic item in the budget during a meeting with a group of international lawyers last week.
"Deferral will certainly be at play," he said, according to a report in Tax Notes, a publication of the Tax Policy Center. He was referring to how corporations are able to defer paying tax on income earned overseas until they bring that money back to the US.
That may not do enough to discourage outsourcing, says Andrew Kokes, vice-president for marketing at Sitel, a Nashville-based outsourcing firm with 4,000 employees in India. Even if the US proposes a punitive tax on companies doing work offshore or offers a tax break for those that do not, the changes wouldn't be large enough to offset the 20 per cent to 30 per cent benefit companies get in lower labor costs when they do certain work offshore, he says. "A tax break can't compete with that kind of arbitrage," says Kokes.
A worldwide trend
The US is not alone in this increasing aversion to foreign labor and to outsourcing. As the pain of the global economic crisis intensifies, countries all around the world are adopting policies that make it tougher for foreigners to get jobs. In the Gulf countries, where several million Indians are employed in jobs ranging from construction to banking, governments have cut down on work visas and sent unemployed Indians home by the planeload.
A Dubai-based official with an airline (who asked not to be named) says construction companies chartered more than 30 flights in January alone to fly workers back to India. In Malaysia, 43 Indian workers who have overstayed their visas expect to be deported this week, as thousands more leave voluntarily. On Mar. 2, the British government started an inquiry into whether immigrant workers should be restricted to sectors of the economy that have documented worker shortages.
In India, these decisions have raised hackles. India's IT sector is seen as a source of national pride - an area where Indians see themselves as competing successfully on the global scene. Moreover, the millions of Indians living overseas send back more than $30 billion a year in remittances, making up 3 per cent of the country's GDP, according to estimates by the International Labor Organization.
Political groups, parlaying for support in upcoming elections, have grasped the issue, threatening boycotts and asking the Indian government to intervene on behalf of its expatriates. "We feel that in the current economic environment it is imperative for global corporations to collaborate on technology and innovation," says Suresh Senapaty, the chief financial officer of Wipro [Get Quote], one of India's largest IT services companies. "Policies of protectionism will only hinder the revival of the world economy."
While the change in rules for H-1B hires may be popular in the US, it could have a long-term impact that policymakers are not foreseeing, according to a report released Mar. 2 by researchers at Duke and Harvard universities.
Disheartened by the change in visa rules, nearly 100,000 foreign workers could leave the US and return to their home countries, researchers concluded. The two-year study asked those who had returned why they left the US, and found that increased opportunities in India and China made it easier for these highly trained workers to leave jobs in Silicon Valley and start businesses back in their home countries.
"Short term, this will have no impact on the US, but long term this could spell disaster," says Vivek Wadhwa, the lead researcher on the study and a research associate at Harvard's law school. "When we start recovering, then the people we need are going to be in India and China."
Since 1990, the H-1B program has allowed foreigners holding at least a bachelor's degree to work for six-year spells at US companies and to have a chance to apply for a green card. Companies such as Microsoft and Google have hired thousands of foreign workers on H-1B visas.
It is unclear how many of them applied for - or received - green cards, but the green card backlog in the US in 2006, the last year for which data are available, was more than 1 million.
At the same time, Labor Dept and US immigration statistics indicate that just a little more than half of the allotted H-1B visas went to the high-tech sector; others included workers in fields as diverse as academia, medicine, and the nonprofit world.
Several studies have shown that while there is documented fraud in the H-1B visa system and that H-1B workers often depress the local wages for similar US workers, these highly trained immigrants do fuel a disproportionate portion of US innovation.
Wadhwa points out that nearly half of Silicon Valley startups - including Google - were started by immigrants, and nearly a quarter of U.S. global patent applications are from foreigners. "Without doubt, these H-1B workers are adding to the innovation pool in the US," says Wadhwa.
Obama's $787 billion stimulus plan will make it increasingly difficult for US companies receiving bailout money to hire foreigners on temporary work permits known as H-1B visas. The budget the President recently presented may also make it harder for US companies that send jobs overseas to receive tax benefits.
In India, where the $63 billion IT sector makes up almost 7 per cent of the national GDP, the moves are worrying government officials. Acting Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee groused about it over the weekend in an interview with CNN-IBN, a content partnership with Time Warner's CNN owned by India's TV18. "We will have to address this issue," said Mukherjee, whose ministry has spent the last five months trying to restart India's slowing economy with tax cuts and spending plans. "We are opposing protectionism, not only here but at every forum."
What's next?
Even more vexing for India's outsourcing industry is the lack of clarity about what might be coming next from the US. During a Feb. 24 speech to Congress, Obama said the Administration will eliminate "incentives for companies that ship jobs overseas," but the White House has not provided additional details.
A line item in Obama's budget titled "Implement international enforcement, reform deferral, and other tax reform policies" is the only hint tax experts in the US and in India have had about the policy. The estimates for tax revenues generated by that budget change start at $15 billion in 2009 and go up to $25 billion in 2012.
Those inexact estimates, says Rosanne Altshuler, co-director of the Tax Policy Center (a joint venture of two Washington think tanks, the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution), is an indication that the changes in tax policy have not yet been worked out, and likely will not become public until April.
Indians with a stake in the outsourcing industry are now waiting and watching. "Of course we are concerned," says Mohandas Pai, a board member and director of human resources at Infosys [Get Quote], India's second-largest IT company by revenues. "But nobody knows what the devil is being referred to (in the Obama statement)."
At a time when nearly 5 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits and another 1.7 million are working part-time jobs because they can't find full-time work, immigration and outsourcing have become key political issues in the US. As he did during his campaign, Obama has made clear during the first weeks of his Presidency that he intends to pursue policy changes to discourage outsourcing and the use of US work visas - especially H-1B visas - that could cost American jobs.
At no time has he made the exact policies clear, says Altshuler. Even within the government, the changes remain a mystery. Edward Kleinbard, the chief of staff for Congress' Joint Committee on Taxation, was forced to offer up a guess about the cryptic item in the budget during a meeting with a group of international lawyers last week.
"Deferral will certainly be at play," he said, according to a report in Tax Notes, a publication of the Tax Policy Center. He was referring to how corporations are able to defer paying tax on income earned overseas until they bring that money back to the US.
That may not do enough to discourage outsourcing, says Andrew Kokes, vice-president for marketing at Sitel, a Nashville-based outsourcing firm with 4,000 employees in India. Even if the US proposes a punitive tax on companies doing work offshore or offers a tax break for those that do not, the changes wouldn't be large enough to offset the 20 per cent to 30 per cent benefit companies get in lower labor costs when they do certain work offshore, he says. "A tax break can't compete with that kind of arbitrage," says Kokes.
A worldwide trend
The US is not alone in this increasing aversion to foreign labor and to outsourcing. As the pain of the global economic crisis intensifies, countries all around the world are adopting policies that make it tougher for foreigners to get jobs. In the Gulf countries, where several million Indians are employed in jobs ranging from construction to banking, governments have cut down on work visas and sent unemployed Indians home by the planeload.
A Dubai-based official with an airline (who asked not to be named) says construction companies chartered more than 30 flights in January alone to fly workers back to India. In Malaysia, 43 Indian workers who have overstayed their visas expect to be deported this week, as thousands more leave voluntarily. On Mar. 2, the British government started an inquiry into whether immigrant workers should be restricted to sectors of the economy that have documented worker shortages.
In India, these decisions have raised hackles. India's IT sector is seen as a source of national pride - an area where Indians see themselves as competing successfully on the global scene. Moreover, the millions of Indians living overseas send back more than $30 billion a year in remittances, making up 3 per cent of the country's GDP, according to estimates by the International Labor Organization.
Political groups, parlaying for support in upcoming elections, have grasped the issue, threatening boycotts and asking the Indian government to intervene on behalf of its expatriates. "We feel that in the current economic environment it is imperative for global corporations to collaborate on technology and innovation," says Suresh Senapaty, the chief financial officer of Wipro [Get Quote], one of India's largest IT services companies. "Policies of protectionism will only hinder the revival of the world economy."
While the change in rules for H-1B hires may be popular in the US, it could have a long-term impact that policymakers are not foreseeing, according to a report released Mar. 2 by researchers at Duke and Harvard universities.
Disheartened by the change in visa rules, nearly 100,000 foreign workers could leave the US and return to their home countries, researchers concluded. The two-year study asked those who had returned why they left the US, and found that increased opportunities in India and China made it easier for these highly trained workers to leave jobs in Silicon Valley and start businesses back in their home countries.
"Short term, this will have no impact on the US, but long term this could spell disaster," says Vivek Wadhwa, the lead researcher on the study and a research associate at Harvard's law school. "When we start recovering, then the people we need are going to be in India and China."
Since 1990, the H-1B program has allowed foreigners holding at least a bachelor's degree to work for six-year spells at US companies and to have a chance to apply for a green card. Companies such as Microsoft and Google have hired thousands of foreign workers on H-1B visas.
It is unclear how many of them applied for - or received - green cards, but the green card backlog in the US in 2006, the last year for which data are available, was more than 1 million.
At the same time, Labor Dept and US immigration statistics indicate that just a little more than half of the allotted H-1B visas went to the high-tech sector; others included workers in fields as diverse as academia, medicine, and the nonprofit world.
Several studies have shown that while there is documented fraud in the H-1B visa system and that H-1B workers often depress the local wages for similar US workers, these highly trained immigrants do fuel a disproportionate portion of US innovation.
Wadhwa points out that nearly half of Silicon Valley startups - including Google - were started by immigrants, and nearly a quarter of U.S. global patent applications are from foreigners. "Without doubt, these H-1B workers are adding to the innovation pool in the US," says Wadhwa.
Space craft sent out in the milky way
NASA launched a telescope that will search our corner of the Milky Way galaxy for Earth-like planets, calling it a mission that may fundamentally change humanity's view of itself.
NASA launched its Kepler spacecraft just before 11 p.m. Friday in a mission that the agency says may fundamentally change humanity's view of itself.
This image shows part of the Milky Way region of the sky where the Kepler spacecraft will be pointing.
1 of 3
The Kepler spacecraft blasted into space on top of a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
The telescope will search our corner of the Milky Way galaxy for Earth-like planets.
"This is a historical mission. It's not just a science mission," NASA Associate Administrator Ed Weiler said during a prelaunch news conference.
"It really attacks some very basic human questions that have been part of our genetic code since that first man or woman looked up in the sky and asked the question: Are we alone?"
Kepler contains a special telescope that will stare at 100,000 stars in the Cygnus-Lyra region of the Milky Way for more than three years as it trails Earth's orbit around the Sun.
The spacecraft will look for tiny dips in a star's brightness, which can mean an orbiting planet is passing in front of it -- an event called a transit. Watch how astronomers will try to find 'Earths' »
The instrument is so precise that it can register changes in brightness of 20 parts per million in stars that are thousands of light years away.
"Being able to make that kind of a sensitive measurement over a very large number of stars was extremely challenging," Kepler project manager James Fanson said.
"So we're very proud of the vehicle we have built. This is a crowning achievement for NASA and a monumental step in our search for other worlds around other stars." See what the telescope looks like and which part of the galaxy it will monitor »
Are we alone?
The $600 million mission is named after Johannes Kepler, a 17th-century German astronomer who was the first to correctly explain planetary motion. His discoveries combined with modern technology may soon help to answer whether we are alone in the universe or whether Earth-like worlds inhabited by some type of life are common.
NASA launched its Kepler spacecraft just before 11 p.m. Friday in a mission that the agency says may fundamentally change humanity's view of itself.
This image shows part of the Milky Way region of the sky where the Kepler spacecraft will be pointing.
1 of 3
The Kepler spacecraft blasted into space on top of a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
The telescope will search our corner of the Milky Way galaxy for Earth-like planets.
"This is a historical mission. It's not just a science mission," NASA Associate Administrator Ed Weiler said during a prelaunch news conference.
"It really attacks some very basic human questions that have been part of our genetic code since that first man or woman looked up in the sky and asked the question: Are we alone?"
Kepler contains a special telescope that will stare at 100,000 stars in the Cygnus-Lyra region of the Milky Way for more than three years as it trails Earth's orbit around the Sun.
The spacecraft will look for tiny dips in a star's brightness, which can mean an orbiting planet is passing in front of it -- an event called a transit. Watch how astronomers will try to find 'Earths' »
The instrument is so precise that it can register changes in brightness of 20 parts per million in stars that are thousands of light years away.
"Being able to make that kind of a sensitive measurement over a very large number of stars was extremely challenging," Kepler project manager James Fanson said.
"So we're very proud of the vehicle we have built. This is a crowning achievement for NASA and a monumental step in our search for other worlds around other stars." See what the telescope looks like and which part of the galaxy it will monitor »
Are we alone?
The $600 million mission is named after Johannes Kepler, a 17th-century German astronomer who was the first to correctly explain planetary motion. His discoveries combined with modern technology may soon help to answer whether we are alone in the universe or whether Earth-like worlds inhabited by some type of life are common.
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