First Indian-American woman to take a company public in US says returning to India was not an option at her time

Vinita Gupta, who is called the first woman of Indian origin to have taken her company public in the US, said India is now different than her time. At her time, returning to India was not an option, but now good engineers have plenty of opportunities in India. Speaking to the San Francisco Chronicle on the issue of Indian tech leaders in Silicon Valley, Gupta said she still does not feel that coming to the US is a waste or unnecessary.

“India has become prosperous enough where good engineers, technical skills, can fetch you a good job. That was not true when I came,” Gupta said. “We couldn’t go back.”

Gupta said Silicon Valley embraces people from all over the world and it's the most egalitarian place. Though new doors have opened up in India, techies should still come to the US. “They should still come here because this valley is based on individual talents and not based on where you were born, where you were educated,” she said. “It’s embracing to all people from all over the world. More egalitarian than you could be anywhere else.”

Gupta came to the US in 1974, a year after she completed her Bachelor of Engineering in Electronic and Communications at IIT Roorkee, India in 1973. She received her Master's in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1974. In 1985, she co-founded a telecommunications hardware company -- Digital Link Corporation -- which went public in 1994.

Gupta holds two US patents: one for a solid-state relay issued in 1984 and another for a square root circuit issued in 1986. After her retirement from the company, Gupta has become a bridge champion.

The environment in the US has grown hostile for Indians with Republicans calling for ending H-1B and OPT programs. A recent poll of 1,000 Indian-Americans conducted by YouGov and the Carnegie Endowment found 40% of respondents thought about leaving the US either frequently or occasionally, citing frustration over US policies and concerns over cost of living and personal safety. A quarter of respondents also cited better career opportunities in other countries.
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