<p>A senior official of the US Consulate General, Chennai, has brushed aside the concerns over the passage of Grassley-Durbin bill in the US which will put restrictions on companies to hire employees with H-1B visas, thus affecting the Indian IT industry.<br /><br /></p>.<p>“It is premature to talk about the bill. There are many other bills yet to be passed and it is a hypothetical situation as of now,” said Charles E Luoma-Overstreet, Chief of the Consular Section, US Consulate General, Chennai. He was speaking at a discussion on the topic “Study in the US” in the City on Thursday.<br /><br />According to the Open Doors Report on International Education Exchange (an official record of students studying in the US) that was released a few days ago, the number of Indian students going to the US is at an all-time high. <br /><br />From 1.02 lakh students in 2013-14 the number of students went up to 1.32 lakhs in 2014-15, a jump of 29.4 per cent. This is the highest ever number in the history of the Open Doors report. <br /><br />Commenting on the reason for this growth, Charles said that it was not only due to the fact that there were a number of top notch and Ivy League institutions that attracted students, but also a number of other good options that provided a “value for money”. <br /><br />Rohan Nandkumar, a class 12 student who wants to study computer engineering for his undergraduate studies, has already made a selection of a number of US institutions, other than Ivy League colleges: <br /><br />“I am looking at institutions such as Texas A&M University-Kingsville, University of California, San Diego and Davis to name a few. The overall cost would be anywhere around Rs 28 lakh per annum compared to around Rs 50 lakh in Ivy League colleges,” he said. <br /><br />Swetha Muthanna, director, Yashna Trust, an EducationUSA Center, said that the reason for more students going to US was due to the fact that Bengaluru was becoming more of a “globalised city” with many sobriquets such a the IT capital and Start-up City.<br /> </p>
<p>A senior official of the US Consulate General, Chennai, has brushed aside the concerns over the passage of Grassley-Durbin bill in the US which will put restrictions on companies to hire employees with H-1B visas, thus affecting the Indian IT industry.<br /><br /></p>.<p>“It is premature to talk about the bill. There are many other bills yet to be passed and it is a hypothetical situation as of now,” said Charles E Luoma-Overstreet, Chief of the Consular Section, US Consulate General, Chennai. He was speaking at a discussion on the topic “Study in the US” in the City on Thursday.<br /><br />According to the Open Doors Report on International Education Exchange (an official record of students studying in the US) that was released a few days ago, the number of Indian students going to the US is at an all-time high. <br /><br />From 1.02 lakh students in 2013-14 the number of students went up to 1.32 lakhs in 2014-15, a jump of 29.4 per cent. This is the highest ever number in the history of the Open Doors report. <br /><br />Commenting on the reason for this growth, Charles said that it was not only due to the fact that there were a number of top notch and Ivy League institutions that attracted students, but also a number of other good options that provided a “value for money”. <br /><br />Rohan Nandkumar, a class 12 student who wants to study computer engineering for his undergraduate studies, has already made a selection of a number of US institutions, other than Ivy League colleges: <br /><br />“I am looking at institutions such as Texas A&M University-Kingsville, University of California, San Diego and Davis to name a few. The overall cost would be anywhere around Rs 28 lakh per annum compared to around Rs 50 lakh in Ivy League colleges,” he said. <br /><br />Swetha Muthanna, director, Yashna Trust, an EducationUSA Center, said that the reason for more students going to US was due to the fact that Bengaluru was becoming more of a “globalised city” with many sobriquets such a the IT capital and Start-up City.<br /> </p>
