Civil Services Examination

Nothing seems more deeply rooted in the Indian fabric than having a high-quality, higher education system. Thus it is not surprising that Indians hold roughly one-half of all H1-B visas to work in the U.S., according to the U.S. Immigration-Naturalization Service. (H1-B visas are temporary work permits for skilled professionals.) In fact, about 50,000 Indian contract employees with H1-B visas work in Silicon Valley, which attests to the high quality scientific, engineering, and business training found in India. (The number of Indian workers in Silicon Valley has decreased since the economic slowdown in the U.S. and the September 11, 2001 attacks.) Civil services examination seems more deeply rooted in the Indian fabric than having a high-quality, higher education system. Indias top colleges and institutes rank among the leading programs in the world, not just the developing world. Civil services exam is very high education programs is highly competitive; perhaps more so than most in the United States. Of course, a major concern for India is being able to retain a good share of the top graduates from the Indian schools, in order to stop the brain drain. According to the Chairman of the Adyta Birla group, the quality of the countrys institutes of management and technology has had multinationals scurrying to campuses to employ our finest young students. In addition to the U.S., Germany, Japan, and Ireland have actively recruited in India. India Today provides an annual ranking of the leading schools of higher education in India. Not surprisingly, the famous Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) dominate rankings for the Engineering schools. The list for 2001 is headed by Indian Institutes of Technology, Kharagpur and includes the IITs in Kanpur, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, and Guwahati among its top ten. Sri Ram College in Delhi, a school offering the B Com (Honors) degree, had the number one ranking among Commerce colleges. Its graduates and those of the other leading Commerce colleges provide graduates for high-profile MNCs and Indian firms. Another alternative for Indian students is the new international standard business school that involves a partnership with two well-known U.S. schools, Northwestern University and the University of Pennsylvania. The school, known as the Indian School of Business, is a project of several expatriate Indian business leaders, including Raj at Gupta, the top executive at McKinsey. Located at Hyderabad, the school has instant visibility and features a one -year M.B.A. program. Indias top colleges and institutes rank among the leading programs in the world, not just the developing world. Executives from several MNCs serve on the schools Board of Directors. The school should attract a continuous flow of outstanding students and faculty, another plus for direct investors operating in India. The six Indian Institutes of Technology mentioned earlier were founded in the 1950s and were patterned after M.I.T. in the U.S. This led to the talent that produced Indias IT sector, although many left for the U.S. and other developed countries. Today, there are many regional engineering colleges in India, as well as 30,000 computer-training centers. Still, there is an ongoing and growing need for trained IT people in the country. India is unique among developing markets in having produced such a highly skilled labor pool one that has helped the West and still continues to drive the country toward a leadership role in the high-tech world