As Life Goes Digital

Image by Getty Images via Daylife As elections approach, Illinois Senator Barack Obama who is US, Democratic presidential nominee in a campaign event in Pennsylvania talked about streamlining specialized skills related jobs and their visas -- H2-B.

H2-B visas are required for highly specialized skills where local US business is not able to recruit the local talent citing "nuclear physicist" example from India.

Obama was unhappy that (H1-B) visas system is misused by the companies by wrongfully hiring software engineers for low wages and effecting the US labor markets and wages.

With US unemployment rate reaching 6.1% , the jobs have become a talking point in US 2008 elections and naturally the focus is shifted of how the jobs should not be wrongfully moved to overseas. The immigration is deciding factor in elections as how well both McCain Republicans and Obama Democrats talk about their immigration policies in coming weeks.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Obama: McCain focused on biography over economy

Labels: Barack Obama, Barack Obama presidential campaign 2008, H1-B, H2-B, Immigration, Pennsylvania, Politics, Presidential nominee, Society and Culture, United States, US

Lets keep politics aside for few minutes and think what great leaders do for communities and for cities in terms of their brand image.

It is so easy to forget great leaders of the past.His actions and his vision made people to remember him.Nara Chandrababu Naidu( (born April 20, 1950) was the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh during 1995-2004. He holds the record of being the longest served chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.

He put Hyderabad (now Greater Hyderabad) on world map.He made sure that then President Bill Clinton and Microsoft President Bill Gates to visit Hyderabad during their visit to India.This increased the brand image of Hyderabad and the brand keeping its promise by providing required infrastructure to many IT establishments now in Hyderabad.

Naidu is a future thinker than many Indian politicians.
As Hindu article puts it -

Mr. Naidu said he was desperate for a meeting with Microsoft chief Gates to showcase the potential of Hyderabad in IT.

With great difficulty, the American Embassy arranged a meeting for five minutes. He made a power-point presentation that ensured Microsoft's entry to the city.

Mr. Naidu said Hyderabad was not even on IT map when he prepared the plans.

Today, about 30 per cent of Indian computer professionals seeking visas to US were from the State.

Here are some of his other great acheivements: ( From http://narafans.com/)

eGovernance - Andhra Pradesh has taken the lead in introducing Electronic Governance and has achieved considerable progress in this area
Genome Valley-Government of Andhra Pradesh declares the area of approximately 600 sq. kilometres covering the mandals of Shamirpet, Medchal, Keesra and Uppal in Ranga Reddy District as the "Genome Valley" in which biotech activities will be encouraged and promoted
Biotechnology-The first step in the creation of knowledge corridor is the Biotechnology Park. The thrust areas in Andhra Pradesh include hybrid seeds, plant protection, vaccines, bio-informatics and environmental biotechnology among others --- Vision 2020
Hitec City-A city that is centrally located within an hour's flying distance from anywhere in India, having the lowest cost of living compared to other major metros, the largest pool of IT manpower and an ideal industrial climate backed by an investor friendly State Government. In this promising locale, a millennium magnificence has shaped up - Asia's largest software technology park. It's called HITEC (Hyderabad Information Technology Engineering Consultancy ) CITY. Launched in 1997, it is being developed as a integrated techno township to offer a one stop solution to the business and social needs of the IT and related industries.
HITEX-HITEX is the newest and state-of-the-art venue for international exhibitions, conferences, trade shows and corporate events in India.HITEX is located strategically at the most happening part in the city of Hyderabad, at Madhapur, the emerging business and technology hub.
TWINS Project-TWINS stands for Twin Cities Integrated Network Service. The objective of Twins is to provide selected services and information on various departments and agencies of State and Central governments in an efficient, reliable, transparent and integrated manner.

Wish this great man a happy birthday - April 20, 2007
Note : I have no affiliations with politics or Chandrababu Naidu.

Labels: Chandrababu Naidu, People, Politics