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Bill Gates against U.S. keeping out talent

Sandeep Joshi

— Photo: S. Subramanium

LOOKING AT THE FUTURE: Chairman of Microsoft Corporation Bill Gates with Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Sachin Pilot (centre) and president of the National Association of Software and Services Companies Som Mittal, addressing the NASSCOM CEOs Forum in New Delhi on Friday.

NEW DELHI: Microsoft Corporation co-founder and Chairman Bill Gates on Friday warned the Indian information technology industry that U.S. immigration laws could get tougher.

Addressing a CEOs Forum here, Mr. Gates said: “The U.S. Congress is very tough on immigration in general… that’s unfortunate. What about making an exception for a few smart people? ... free exchange of talent is very important.” He, however, pointed out that the U.S. immigration policy might get stricter. “It would be a great mistake,” he said, while adding that Microsoft always supported exchange of talent and was against tougher immigration laws.

Referring to India’s unique identification cards project, Mr. Gates said Microsoft wanted to be a part of it. He plans to meet the Unique Identification Authority of India Chairman Nandan M. Nilekani to discuss the issue.

Lauding the success of the Indian IT industry, Mr. Gates said it was high time the country focussed on high-end research and development to maintain the competitive edge. The government should strive to add value by focussing on research and design and by increasing the number of its Ph.D. students.

“At first some of the IT boom was built on low-cost labour. And, of course, as time goes on, you don’t want to have that as the only differentiator and it’s not a sustainable thing, because others can come along with that as well,” Mr. Gates said, pointing to competition from other nations.

Talking about challenges being posed by rival Google, Mr. Gates said it was “fun competition” and praised Google for its “great work” in the field of IT and Internet. He hoped that Microsoft’s recently launched search engine – Bing – would soon make its presence felt. “The future of search is Bing. In the next 1-3 years search should be dramatically better. Microsoft has hired some great people to do innovative work to make it more competitive. When you are a distant two, you have to try harder,” Mr. Gates said. “Who knows we can make it better and faster than anybody else.”

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