IIT may also be one of the best educational bargains in the world. It costs a family just about $700 a year for room, board and tuition. That's less than 20 percent of the true cost since the Indian government subsidizes all the rest. While some IIT grads stay and have helped build India's flourishing high-tech sector, almost two-thirds--up to 2,000 people--leave every year, most for the U.S.
“Some people would say you're subsidizing factories, which produce largely for the higher end of the American employment market,” says Rahm. “You don't have to be crudely nationalistic to raise this question. There's a need here. There's a demand here, and these guys are simply not available.” How many of them ever come back? “Very small percentage, but my view is that we also have to work harder here to make it attractive for them to come back,” says Murthy. And Murthy is doing his part. His software company, Infosys, hires about 150 IIT graduates every year to stay and work in India. He says the brain-drain doesn't worry him. “Some of these people who have reached the higher echelons in the corporate world in the U.S., you know, they have persuaded their corporations to start operations in India, whether it's Texas Instruments, whether it's General Electric, whether it's Citibank,” says Murthy.
“I have no question that India now is benefiting significantly from the cycling of knowledge, the back and forth, no question about it,” says Khosla. And individual IIT grads are sending lots of money back home, too, but the U.S. still gets the better end of the bargain. “How many jobs have entrepreneurs, Indian entrepreneurs, in Silicon Valley created over the last 15, 20 years? Hundreds of thousands, I would
guess,” says Khosla. “For America to be able to pick off this human capital, these well-trained engineers with great minds, it's a great deal.”
