Indiana's talent dilemma

This state of USA is represented on automobile plates as "Crossroads of America". It is indeed apt, as living here for the past 7 years has taught me - on one hand its the great road connector of the east coast to the west and the south while on the other it is in a bankruptcy situation, on one hand it is home to some of the most respected, diverse and historical educational institutes of the midwest while on the other it suffers from a horrific brain-drain dilemma, on one hand it has the potential to compete with California yet on the other it cannot lift itself up and provide enough opportunities for enthusiastic start-ups. I can give you numerous other examples but I hope this establishes enough relevance about what I am going to say further.

Recently I happened to be in a meeting that was very well represented by the educational elite and economic engines of the state. They talked about a number of things, including some of the issues discussed above. There was talk at length about how plans were being made to fund and engage new ventures, increase public-private business collaboration, obtain government support, etc. But, the points that all discussions seemed to converge and stop at were the following: 1) Where to get the talent to support such a machinery? and 2) How to stop the brain-drain to other states and prevent business from hiring in foreign locations.
The most interesting comment came very late in the discussion and said "they can hire 4 post-docs in other countries for the same price as 1 here, but eventually (20 yrs) those post-docs are also going to want fringe benefits, so how do we stem the out-flow of both talent and external employment now?". It is indeed amazing to know that the Indo-China juggernaut is finally making people sit-up and take notice!

Anyways, we all know the issues. But let me point out that these issues are not really that big and can be easily resolved, if educational and governmental organizations put a little bit more pressure on the federal government to ease out its H1B policy and I am in full agreement with Mr. Gates that USA will lose out its edge soon if this widening gap is not plugged. However, I am not a lobbyist and I don't want to get into a debate of foreign and immigration policy. My point is simple. You say there is no talent and there is brain-drain, I say open your eyes and look at the international students you graduate every year - though a majority of them get good jobs, some perhaps better than local candidates, the ones that don't end up either studying further, returning to their home country or end up doing jobs they did not educationally train to do! I can personally give you countless examples of such cases!

The point to understand is that international students have a lot more at stake than local students, they are more exposed to international experience, they have a better understanding of "historical education" - which means world history, world geography, science and math, globalization - because they are from those very backgrounds, and yes they have already proven a point by adapting to a whole different culture and still doing at par or better than locals! So why not when it comes to jobs, support them and let them take the country to the next level instead of bogging them down with visa regulations, hiring restrictions and stupid policies? Yes, they are polished and ready - products churned out by your own prestigious educational machinery and they did not begin education here - so why the discrimination when it comes to hiring? To protect the so-called competitive edge which is only fast-diminishing as these same students go back to their home countries to be employed by Infy and TCS and then come back to work as consultants - sending tax and revenues back to their home countries? Its about time to wake up from this illusion that things will get fixed by themselves and assume responsibility for changing it - Now!

It is irritating and frustrating to see that there are discussions at length about such menial issues as brain-drain, when a whole lot of talent is being put to waste in making it run from cyber sweat-shops to admissions for higher education to trips to the visa offices, etc. It is indeed a painful sight and a shame that on one hand talent with such great, incomparable and hands-on experience, an illustrious educational background and rigorous training is being laid to waste just because it is "foreign born" while on the other there is a lengthy debate on how to solve the talent shortage and brain-drain problem.