Congressional Statements

Congressman Crowley Floor Statement Honoring the Contributions of Indian Americans

Press Release
April 26, 2005

Washington, DC-Today, Congressman Joseph Crowley (NY-7), Chief Deputy Whip, submitted the following statement to the congressional record in support of H.R. 227 recognizing and honoring the contributions of Indian Americans to economic innovation American society.

"As the former Co-Chair of the Caucus on India and Indian Americans and the representative of one of the largest concentrations of Indian Americans in the United States, I have seen first hand the contributions my friends from India have made.

I commend my colleague and good friend Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) for introducing this legislation and talking about the contributions of Indian Americans. Representing the second highest concentration of Indian Americans in the country, I have seen for myself on 74th Street in Jackson Heights, Queens how successful and industrious Indian Americans are. That recipe for success starts with institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology, which we recognize today, and the far-reaching success of their graduates.

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) has had a long history of grooming fine minds that have gone on to achieve incredible success in India and around the world.

The first IIT was established in 1950 in Kharagpur and now fifty plus years later they have a total of seven institutes with the newest one established by recognizing University of Roorkee, one of Asia's oldest engineering institutions, as IIT Roorkee . Many of the top Indians in industry have graduated from India's prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, like Vinod Khosla, founder of Sun Microsystems to Rajat Gupta, the first non North America born head of venerable consulting company McKinsey &Co

I have had an opportunity to meet many graduates of IIT and all have spoken about the benefits of attending the institute.

I believe in today's current educational environment in the United States we can learn from the history of how the Indian government went about establishing this institute. After the Indians gained their independence from the British they formed committees to explore ways of creating an educated class of people to move the country forward.

What they found was that to be competitive in the world they need to excel in technology and engineering, which is where we in the United States find ourselves to be lacking today. We need to follow the example of our Indian friends and the example we set in the 1960's and create a national strategy to make the way we teach our children in the United States more focused on the math and sciences so we are not left behind.

Instead of fearing India as an economic competitor, we should be embracing India as an economic and political ally. The over 1 billion consumers in India and the market for US goods and services in India allows for unprecedented opportunities for American companies, and job growth for Americans.

I want to thank Mr. Davis for introducing this resolution and urge all my colleagues to support it."