SECRETARY SPELLINGS AND CODEL ENZI VISIT TO THE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 CHENNAI 000757

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OVIP OREP PREL SCUL ECON IN
SUBJECT: SECRETARY SPELLINGS AND CODEL ENZI VISIT TO THE
"FLAT WORLD" OF BANGALORE

REF: A) CHENNAI 0724, B) NEW DELHI 2549


1. (U) SUMMARY: During the first India stop on what they
billed as their "The World Is Flat Tour," Secretary of
Education Margaret Spellings and CODEL Enzi, consisting
of Senator Michael Enzi (R-Wyoming),Senator Lamar
Alexander (R-Tennessee),and Senator Johnny Isakson (R-
Georgia),visited the city of Bangalore, India's high
tech capital. They met with business leaders for a
focused discussion of business activity in India and its
implications for education from both a U.S. and Indian
perspective, visited General Electric's John F. Welch
Technology Center for a view of cutting edge scientific
research being conducted in India, and toured the
expansive campus of Infosys, India's software leader. An
additional planned visit to a government school which
uses computer technology to enhance its curriculum had to
be cancelled due to violence in the city related to the
death of a local film superstar (Ref A). END SUMMARY

--------------
BUSINESS LEADERS PROVIDE INSIGHTS
--------------


2. (U) The day in Bangalore began and ended with separate
meetings with the local American Chamber of Commerce for
breakfast and the combined Indo-American and Bangalore
Area Chambers of Commerce for dinner. In each of the
meetings, the delegation heard from a wide range of
Bangalore business leaders who discussed business trends
in their industries and also issues of education,
especially the possibility of increased collaboration
between India and the United States in the areas of
science, mathematics and biotechnology among others.
Both during the meetings with business leaders and at an
evening press conference, Secretary Spellings and Senator
Enzi expressed admiration for the high quality and
quantity of graduates that India is producing, especially
in engineering and related disciplines. Secretary
Spellings noted that education was a shared value between
the two countries and expressed interest in learning more
about how India has so successfully educated its large
talent pool. She said that the American Competitiveness
Initiative which focuses on mathematics and science
learning seeks to help U.S. students succeed in these
disciplines.


3. (U) It was noted during the discussions that while
over 80,000 Indian students are currently enrolled in
U.S. universities, only 780 American students are
currently studying at Indian institutions of higher
learning. Both Secretary Spellings and Senator Enzi said
that they expected greater numbers of Americans to study
at Indian universities in the future.

-------------- --------------
G.E. TECHNOLOGY CENTER SHOWCASES SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
-------------- --------------


4. (U) The delegation's visit to the General Electric
John F. Welch Technology Center showcased the advanced
scientific research capabilities of a leading U.S.
technology company. GE's Bangalore research center,
which occupies more than 500,000 square feet on a 50 acre
campus, is one of only four such GE facilities in the
world. The others are in Schenectady, New York, Munich,
Germany and Shanghai, China. The Center conducts a
variety of research and development projects in the areas
of mechanical engineering, polymer science, chemical
engineering, metallurgy and process modeling and
simulation. All of the research conducted bears directly
on current or future GE products. The center does not
engage in "pure research." Secretary Spellings and CODEL
Enzi received a briefing on the Center's activities and a
tour of the laboratories and had an opportunity for some
hands-on activities while using a computer simulation
program that allows for three dimensional manipulation of
objects on a computer screen.

--------------
INFOSYS: THE OFFSHORE SOFTWARE PIONEER
--------------


5. (U) Following their stop at GE, Secretary Spellings
and CODEL Enzi made an extended visit to Infosys
Technologies Ltd., one of India's largest and most
successful consulting and IT service companies. Infosys
was one of the pioneers in strategic offshore outsourcing
of software services. The delegation was hosted by N.R.
Narayana Murthy, Infosys Chairman of the Board and Chief

CHENNAI 00000757 002 OF 003


Mentor. Also joining the group at Infosys were former
U.S. Senator from South Dakota, Larry Pressler and former
President of Cornell University Jeffrey Lehman, both of
whom are Directors on the Infosys board. Mr. Murthy led
a discussion of the company's overall performance and
future goals with an emphasis on its search for talent.
He noted that Infosys will continue to aggressively seek
talent from U.S. universities and that a group of 300
fresh U.S. graduates will begin their training at the
company's educational facilities in Karnataka this
summer, following which they will return to the United
States for their assignments at Infosys' U.S. offices.
Also joining the delegation at lunch was Infosys CEO
Nandam Nilekani, the person who, as Secretary Spellings
noted, author Thomas Friedman credits with coining the
phrase "the world is flat."


6. (U) During the delegation's tour of the extensive
Infosys campus, which Chairman Murthy personally
conducted, the conversation naturally turned to the
subject of outsourcing. Murthy said he often addresses
the subject with the following anecdote: Some time ago,
Murthy began, each morning he would go to his kitchen and
open his Godrej (Indian manufacturer) refrigerator, look
inside at the food products, all from domestic suppliers,
and later he would drive to work in his Indian-made
Ambassador model car. Now each morning he opens his
General Electric refrigerator, looks inside at the Coca-
Cola and other American products, and then drives to work
in his Ford car. There is much more to globalization, he
concluded, than outsourcing. The venue for Murthy's
story was Infosys' "network control center," where
several rows of employees sat hard at work at their Dell
computers, all running Microsoft software.


7. (U) Coincidentally, a day after the visit, Infosys
announced its annual results which showed a 32 percent
increase in top line revenue and a 21 percent increase in
bottom line profitably compared with the previous year,
sustaining its position as one of India's largest and
most profitable software and consulting organizations.

-------------- --------------
SEC. SPELLINGS MEETS WITH TEXAS INSTRUMENTS AND GOOGLE
-------------- --------------


8. (U) Secretary Spellings arrived before the CODEL and
had two additional meetings, at Texas Instruments and
with representatives of Google, India. At Texas
instruments she met with Dr. Biswadip (Bobby) Mitra who
is Managing Director. Mr. Mitra led them on a tour of
the facility and talked extensively about the company's
recruitment initiatives at U.S. and Indian universities.
He discussed in detail their university level training
program which is conducted in conjunction with a local
partner, Cranes Software International. This training is
designed to make newly recruited university graduates
"job ready" and is in response to a common complaint from
employers that university graduates are often not fully
prepared to assume their job responsibilities despite
their university education. Secretary Spellings also met
with Arvind Jain who heads Google's center in India for a
general discussion of the company's operations in India.

--------------
THE WORLD IS FLAT BUT NOT WITHOUT BUMPS
--------------


9. (U) Beyond the meetings with business people and
companies that represent the "new Bangalore," Secretary
Spellings and CODEL Enzi also got a taste of the less
glamorous side of south India that is equally a reality
in Bangalore. Travel time between site visits was very
long because of the traffic congestion that is a fact of
life in Bangalore, a city which has grown more rapidly
than its infrastructure. Then, the death of a well known
local film star brought crowds of people out into the
streets. Their emotion at their idol's death turned
violent and riots followed during which eight people
killed and scores injured (Ref A). A planned visit to a
government elementary school which has enhanced its
curriculum through the use of computer assisted learning
had to be cancelled due to security concerns. As
Secretary Spelling pointed out in a press interaction,

SIPDIS
India is a land of contrasts and the delegation saw some
of those contrasts first hand during their visit to
Bangalore.

-------------- --------------
SECRETARY SPELLINGS PROPOSES WASHINGTON FOLLOW-UP

SIPDIS

CHENNAI 00000757 003 OF 003


-------------- --------------


10. (U) When she was told about the 300 U.S. graduates
Infosys plans to bring to India for training beginning in
June/July 2006, Secretary Spellings proposed to CEO
Nilekani that the group first come to Washington for
meetings. Nilekani quickly agreed with the idea.
Secretary Spellings said she would follow-up on the idea

SIPDIS
after returning to Washington.

11 (U) Neither Secretary Spellings nor CODEL Enzi had an
opportunity to clear this cable before their departure.

HOPPER