As US firms cut foreign hires, Indian, Chinese students plan return

July 31st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Every fourth new car buyer in the US is now ready to buy the next vehicle from India or China, threatening to challenge the dominance of Japanese and Koreans in the American auto market, according to a new survey. The "Opportunity for Chinese and Indian Brands in the USA" survey by AutoPacific shows that 15 percent of the new buyers would look at buying a car from China, while 11 percent would go for a car from India.

June 4th, 2009 Recent Census hires by stateA state-by-state breakdown of Census Bureau field employee hires between Feb. 2 and May 2.

May 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is looking to reduce a record projected $1.8 trillion federal deficit with a $210 billion plan to tax more of US firms' overseas earnings and crack down on tax avoidance. White House Budget office figures released Monday would add $89 billion to the 2009 deficit increasing it to more than four times last year's all-time high as the government hands out billions more than expected in stimulus and bailout funds.

April 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Two US senators have introduced a bill to make it tougher for American firms to employ foreign professionals under its H-1B and L1 visa programmes utilised the most by Indians and the Chinese. The bill introduced by Senators Chuck Grassley and Dick Durbin Given Thursday would require US firms looking for skilled foreign professionals to make a 'good faith' attempt to employ Americans first before seeking foreign workers.

March 25th, 2009 KUALA LUMPUR - As global recession-hit Malaysia tightens rules so that jobs are created for locals and entry of foreign workers is curbed, the Human Resource Minister Wednesday said he would urge a delay in doubling the levy on employers who hire foreign workers. Minister S. Subramaniam, an ethnic Indian, said he would ask Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak to give employers a grace period.

March 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - As major US firms cut back on plans to hire foreign students due to concerns over political backlash amidst growing job losses, a new study warns the move may only prove detrimental to America's economic health. A Kauffman Foundation study released Thursday indicates that the move by large banks, such as Bank of America, may only end up hurting the US economic health by accelerating the return of talented immigrant students to their home countries.

March 18th, 2009 MELBOURNE - With global recession biting hard, Australia has launched a multi-million-dollar campaign to ensure that Indian students continue to come here for higher studies, as they have been doing in large numbers in recent years. An estimated 95,000 Indian students joined Australian institutions of higher education in the first 11 months of 2008.

March 5th, 2009 BANGALORE - Graduating students of the prestigious Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B) are feeling the heat of the global meltdown, with fewer job offers and lower compensation this year at the summer campus placements, a top official of the B-school said Wednesday. 'It's tough times for our grads in finding suitable placements with proportionate compensation.

March 2nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Loss of tens of thousands of skilled immigrants to countries like India and China 'is an economic catastrophe that will hurt US competitiveness for decades to come', says Vivek Wadhwa, lead author of a new study done at leading American universities. Wadhwa and his team at Duke, Harvard and Berkeley universities uncovered several trends in their study on the plight of 1,203 skilled immigrants who came to the US from India and China to work or study and returned home: * Most returnees originally came to the United States for career and educational opportunities.

February 21st, 2009 TORONTO - Canada will admit more foreign students but fewer foreign workers this year, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said here Friday. Kenney, who was in India last month, dropped hints that there will be substantial increase in the number of students from India.

February 8th, 2009 HONG KONG - Reports of a standoff between Chinese warships and an Indian submarine in the Gulf of Aden were false, Chinese media reports said Monday. The online edition of the South China Morning Post said that reports of Chinese warships, patrolling the region against Somalia-based pirates, being stalked by a Indian submarine pertained to a military drill last year and had no factual basis.

January 31st, 2009 BEIJING - More Chinese firms are slashing executive pay and having tighter budgets to get through the economic crisis, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Shanghai has said. Nine state-owned enterprises in Shanghai, including Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), have pledged to cut the payrolls of top executives.

January 9th, 2009 AHMEDABAD - The lateral process to place experienced students from various programs in IIM-Ahmedabad at non-entry level positions in different sectors has officially begun, a statement issued by the institute said Saturday. 'The objective of this particular process is to provide our experienced students with a wide gamut of opportunities.

January 1st, 2009 BEIJING - Through a New Year text message sent to millions of mobile phone subscribers, a group of Chinese dairy firms has apologised to people for the country's biggest milk scandal that killed at least six babies and made 290,000 ill. 'We are deeply sorry for the harm we have brought to children and to society,' said the message by the dairy firms led by the Sanlu Group, which is at the centre of the tainted milk controversy.

December 31st, 2008 KUALA LUMPUR - The Indian community must not depend solely on the Malaysian government in the field of education and should follow the Chinese diaspora's example, a Malaysian Indian community leader has said. Ethnic Chinese leaders, parents and teachers sacrificed a lot by providing the much-needed assistance to ensure that there were more qualified citizens in the economic, medical, science, engineering and education sectors, said Malaysian Hindu Sangam president A.