Former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, who lost election in November, championed tax breaks for Tata to build its delivery center in Ohio. But last August, Strickland, a Democrat, facing a close race against Republican John Kasich, issued an executive order prohibiting state agencies from hiring any firm . He said offshore firms posed "unacceptable" risks. Strickland lost to Kasich and the executive order ended when he left office.

In an interview following her talk, Schmidt was asked how she reconciled the differences between those who want the offshore business and those who are fearful of it. "We're global and so we have to look - is it going to be a plus for my community, for my state and for my country? And if that's the case, I think we need to move forward and try to make it work," Schmidt said.

U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), co-chairman of the the congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans, was asked in an interview about his outlook on the effort by some lawmakers to increase the H-1B cap. He plans to support a cap increase but was doubtful it would happen as part of comprehensive immigration reform.

Nonetheless, Crowley said, "I think we can make some adjustments" to the visa, which he said was needed to help retain advanced degree graduates from U.S. universities.

Encouraging foreign graduates, particularly those who leave with advanced science, technology, engineering and math-related degrees, to remain in the U.S., has been cited by President Obama as a policy concern. But it is also a different issue from the one underlying last week's forum.