The Hindu : Front Page : Google searches for great minds

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 08, 2007
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Google searches for great minds

The company urged the U.S. Government to raise the number of H1-B visas by highlighting the contributions of foreignorigin workers.

Silicon Valley: Internet search giant Google on Thursday urged the U.S. Government to raise the number of H1-B visas by highlighting the contributions of its co-founder Sergey Brin and the company's principal scientist, Krishna Bharat, both foreign-origin workers.

In Congressional testimony, Google vice-president of people operations Laszlo Bock cited the emigration of the parents of company co-founder Sergey Brin from the Soviet Union to the U.S. in 1979 as evidence that admitting foreign workers into the country benefits the U.S. economy.

``We opened our doors to Sergey's parents — a mathematician and an economist,'' said Mr. Bock. ``Our educational system served Sergey well — he attended the University of Maryland and Stanford University. Our free market economy supported Sergey and Larry's entrepreneurship and rewarded it when they proved that they could turn their idea into a successful business.''

Vital asset

Mr. Bock said people were Google's most vital competitive asset and without these talented employees and others, the company and high-tech industry as whole would not be the success it is today. Krishna Bharat, a native of India, joined Google in 1999 through H1-B visa, and was one of the chief creators of Google News and is now its principal scientist.

Mr. Bock said without Mr. Krishna and many other employees Google ``will not be able to offer innovative and useful new products to our users.'' Each day Google finds itself unable to pursue highly qualified candidates because there are not enough H1-B visas, he said adding that it would encourage Congress to significantly increase the annual cap of 65,000 H1-B visas to ``reflect the growth rate of our technology-driven economy.''

Mr. Bock said Google was not the only Silicon Valley company to benefit from immigration. ``In fact, Google is just the most recent story for immigrants in Silicon Valley. Intel, eBay, Yahoo, Sun Microsystems, and many other companies were all founded by immigrants who were welcomed by America.''

Over the last 15 years, foreign nationals have started 25 per cent of U.S. venture-backed public companies, accounting for more than $500 billion in market capitalisation and adding significant value to our economy, he noted.

Talented employees

``Hiring and retaining the most talented employees regardless of national origin essential to U.S. ability to compete globally. Companies such as Google will benefit from improving our policies towards non-US workers including in the area of H-1B so that we can continue innovating and growing.''

``We are not the only ones recruiting talented engineers, scientists and mathematicians. We are in a fierce worldwide competition for top talent unlike ever before. As companies in India, China and other countries step up efforts to attract highly skilled employees, the U.S. must continue to focus on attracting and retaining these great minds,'' he said.

Depends on ability

In the knowledge-based economy companies depend primarily on their employees for their success. ``America's edge depends on the ability of U.S. companies to innovate ... and that ability to innovate and create, in turn, depends on having the best and brightest workers,'' he added.

The H1-B visa programme allows foreign scientists, technologists and engineers to work in the U.S. for six years. — PTI

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