Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has said that a group of successful Indo-American information technology professionals would set up a Global Institute of Science and Technology in India in collaboration with the University of California-Berkeley. Stating that economic and business cooperation is the critical pillar of Indo-US relations, Vajpayee told the National Association of Manufacturers and Confederation of Indian Industry, on Friday, that he has invited US business leaders to invest more in India. Talking about the Global Institute, assistant secretary of state Karl F Inderfurth, alongwith senior director for nearest and South Asia Bruce Riedel, said, “This is a private initiative of leaders of Indian origin.” “We have raised half a billion dollars for establishment of world class universities. These institutes would cooperate with US universities,” they said. Representativs of several major corporations also praised India's reform policy. One of the corporations, Hughes, expected to invest two billion dollars in its projects in India. It has also proposed to adopt some villages in Maharashtra where computers would be introduced to train students in information technology. Bureau Report