India: American giants run into IIT backlash

[Robbien]

Source: Telegraph India

New Delhi, Oct. 28: Select US corporate giants — long viewed as symbols of America’s military-industry complex — have run into an unlikely hurdle in their plans to recruit and research at the Indian Institutes of Technology.

Across the IITs, students and professors do not want companies like Halliburton, Lockheed Martin and Dow Chemicals to have “anything to do with IIT”.

. . .

The students and faculty want the companies to be scrutinised for their past record in business ethics, environmental issues and human rights before being allowed into any IIT campus.

While Dow and Halliburton want to recruit from the IITs, Lockheed Martin has made requests for cooperation with specific departments like aerospace engineering.

A petition against Dow has been signed by over a thousand IITians, including several faculty members, and submitted to the directors of the seven institutes across the country.

Read more: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071029/asp/nation/story_8485027.asp

[Deja Q]

1. Pity the IIT folks didn't do that before they accepted jobs from any US company.

Oops, "multinational company". Amazing how the media uses "multinational corporations" for every condition except the bad ones. That's when the ye olde variant, "US corporations", comes back in vogue.

[dave29]

2. this does not change the fact that I was Bangalored

and am still looking for work 5 months on.

[nam78_two]

3. Good for them-K&R.nt

[Pavulon]

4. Which begs the question

why would the company that develops things like the trident d5 be farming its work out to india?

[sutz12]

10. Why not? We buy all of the chips from China.

:shrug:

[DeSwiss]

5. Glad to send this to the Greatest! K&R!!!

:thumbsup: :D

[JeanGrey]

6. I worked for Lockheed for 25 years. They were a wonderful

company to work for and I thank god I had that job. I am still drawing disability benefits from them, still have my insurance (although it is expensive) and many other good things about working there.

[bjobotts]

9. your one little job does not a corporation make.

[JeanGrey]

16. What does that mean?

[robinlynne]

7. fantastic.

[Fire Walk With Me]

8. DRAT! ETHICS!

Curses, foiled again...

This is big grintime. Super hooray!

K&R

[billyoc]

11. Not to worry, President Clinton will grease the wheels of the H1B machine.

AGAIN.

[OhioChick]

14. She Sure Will. n/t

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. Too fucking funny.

Well, it's a good thing these major American military-industrial corpos were never concerned about national security issues when they decided to outsource the jobs. Little did they know that you get what you pay for.

[arcos]

13. Awesome! Intelectuals all around the world are standing up against big corps...

That happened here in the CAFTA referendum. Along with labor unions, faculty members of the state universities were the first to say a loud "NO!".

People, even those who stand to gain a benefit (albeit a small one, when compared to the US), are starting to realize that big corporations are only looking for themselves and not for the people, especially the low and middle classes. That's the case in Costa Rica, that's the case in India, that's the case in Mexico and I hope that's the case in the US too.

[lovuian]

15. India is a socialistic country and Pro Unions there

They inspire Americans