Victor J. Menezes, the 49-year-old newly appointed co-CEO at Citigroup's corporate and investment banking branch, vividly remembers his grueling college years in India - and Professor M.S.Kamath's electrical engineering class in particular. Menezes recalls Kamath as  " the most dreaded professor " on campus 30 years ago at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay. His class was the hardest to get into.

And once in, students wondered what hit them. Kamath's grading system was a punch in the nose for students who fancied themselves as the best and brightest in India. Often, only one student per test got an A - the top scorer. The second best score got a B. Everyone else got Cs, Ds, or Fs. But Kamath had his reasons. Now retired and living outside Bombay, he brushes off his legendary reputation as a campus terror :  "I used to tell my students, 'IIT is a center of excellence. I don't want you to be third-rate products.' "

Far from it. Some of the most prominent chief executives, presidents, entrepreneurs, and inventors in the world are graduates of IIT, India's elite institution of higher learning. Its impossibly high standards, compelling the mostly male student body to average fewer than five hours of sleep a night, produce numerate graduates who are masters at problem solving. Familiar with Western ways due to India's colonial past, they have spent their academic years studying in English, which gives them an edge over other Asians competing for jobs in global corporations.

While IIT has been producing talented engineers, scientists, and managers for four decades, the school has taken on a new prominence lately. With Menezes' ascension at Citigroup on Nov. 1 and the appointment of 45-year-old Rakesh Gangwal as US Airways Group's new CEO on Nov. 18, IIT counts two more alums among the highest ranks of global business. They join Rajat Gupta, who has led McKinsey & Co. for four years, Vinod Khosla, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems Inc., and hundreds of others now working in the top ranks of U.S. corporations and Silicon Valley powerhouses.

It's not just that entrepreneurs have forged a path through high-tech arenas; corporate executives have proven proficient at managing companies, too. Cost cutting by US Airways' Gangwal, for example, helped pull the airline back from the brink of bankruptcy and increased revenues fourfold.

In that regard, the story of these Indians provides a model for other Asians to emulate - and an example for U.S. companies and universities to ponder. For India has created, out of limited resources, a class of executives and entrepreneurs who manage to combine technical brilliance with great management skills.

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