Jun 15, 2003: Why India matters  
 
Indian professionals abroad have succeeded in making India relevant: something our leadership of the non-aligned movement could never achieve. Washington pays us attention not because of our bomb but because American politicians look to 200,000 Indian millionaires in America for funding their elections.
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A less welcome sign of India's new relevance is America's concern that India will steal its white-collar jobs. China has already robbed it of blue-collar jobs; now India is set to become America's back office, as US companies try to cut costs in this recession. Every day some newspaper reports that a new company plans to outsource some office process to India.

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Why India matters
 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=23240
Times of India, June 15, 2003

On a recent lecture tour of America I found that Indians are regarded with new seriousness. Whether in a Bay Area restaurant or a Wall Street office or a Chicago hospital we are now perceived differently. Indian professionals abroad have succeeded in making India relevant: something our leadership of the non-aligned movement could never achieve.

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Clearly, nothing has changed India's image more than the success of Indians abroad. It is reinforced by the grim prospect of middle class office workers in India taking away their "knowledge jobs". On the flight back I was next to a young Indian returning from Antwerp's diamond area. He told me that Hoveniersstraat, a Jewish street once celebrated for famous kosher restaurants, now offers the best dal roti in Europe. And why not: 80 per cent of the world's polished diamonds now pass through Indian rather than Jewish hands.