India's sons do good in West

There's been much media attention to the shift of work to India, but headlines in India today focused on people of Indian descent taking positions of power in the West.

On the front page of The Times of India Web site were stories about six Indian-origin candidates winning seats in Britain's House of Commons and an Indian-American who has been appointed chief financial officer of the White House.

Actually, this coverage is not unusual for the Indian press. With so many Indians living abroad, there's a great deal of interest in so-called "Non-Resident Indians," or NRIs. In fact, The Times of India has a section devoted to NRI News.

Not surprisingly, India seems to feel a degree of pride about the accomplishments of NRIs. "An Indian-American will be minding the White House purse strings," The Times of India said about the newly appointed White House CFO, Gopal Khanna. "Many Indian-Americans have served in the White House at junior levels, but Khanna will likely rank as the senior-most appointee to the presidential office."

Not all the news about NRIs concerns professional accomplishments in the traditional sense. Another Times of India headline Friday referred to an Indian-American student arrested after asking conservative pundit Ann Coulter a question about anal sex. "Cheeky NRI busted for wisecrack," the headline read.