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US to launch 'Passport to India' initiative

Last Updated 07 September 2011, 18:56 IST

While the US wants to see more Indian students at their universities, “we also like to see a lot more American students studying in India” under this initiative, said Jennifer McIntyre, US Consul General in Chennai, on Wednesday.

Now, there are over 100,000 Indian students studying in the US. The new initiative to be rolled out in October envisages bringing more US students as “interns” sponsored by business groups to India for periods ranging from two weeks to two months, Jennifer McIntyre, who recently took over her new assignment in Chennai, told reporters.

This was one of the outcomes of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent visit to India.  Jennifer said her objective will be to take activities that can give a fillip to the Indo-US strategic dialogue and aimed at bringing more education, more businesses and more jobs to both countries.

On the perception that the number of H1B visas had come down for India, Jennifer said it  was not borne out by the statistics. In 2010, India had received 65 per cent of all “H1B visas” issued by US Consulates worldwide. “The trend has been increasing,” she said.

The US consul general, who took over from Andrew T Simkin, does not think that the latest economic downturn in the US will affect India, particularly the information technology and BPO sectors. “I am not an economist, but I believe we will continue to see growing ties irrespective of the state of the economies,” said Jennifer.

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(Published 07 September 2011, 18:56 IST)

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