Recently I was just looking at news and found popular brain-drain notion once again being discussed. It somehow popped up by Mr. Trump, presidential candidate at United States endorsing retaining of Indian students back there.
I’ve penned two blogs previously OSCAR Strategy II – from talent’s perspective: and why Indians are so successful in US, and Indian Organizations VS Foreign Origin MNCs: Key Differences, which I think can be extended to understand popular Brain-Drain concept in India.
It is important to understand that Crude Oil can be a cheap commodity in Middle East country but an expensive commodity in far east countries including India. Similarly intelligent Indian talent is for cheap within India but valued across the world. So there is no point nagging all time that IITs or IIMs graduates when migrate to Western countries’ greener pastures for better career opportunities, are unpatriotic. Rather they are doing great job and making Brand India in the outside world.
We have numerous examples of Indians doing great globally such as Sundar Pichai- CEO Google Inc., Satya Nadella- CEO Microsoft Inc., Indra Nooyi- CEO Pepsi Co, Nikesh Arora- CEO Softbank Inc., etc… They are actually ameliorating Brand India and we should feel proud for them.
It is the failure of Govt. which despite close to 7 decades of freedom, still not able to provide the necessary infrastructure and ecosystem which can foster high paying jobs.
Indian companies/ Govt. should also refrain from selling concept of doing business in India just because talent here is for “cheap” which you can many times notice in power-point slides when they are talking to prospective investors. It is understandable that owing such a big population automatically brings labor rates spiral downwards but the onus is on Govt. to stem that fall and bring the economic conditions of workers to better life styles.
Traditionally India has grown in all sector where there is minimum Govt. role.
For example, when we compare China VS India, one can easily see that difference. While China developed leaps and bounds in those areas which are spurred by Govt. intensive supportive programs such as Manufacturing. You need uninterrupted power supply, good roads, good ports, investment friendly Govt. policies, etc.. And they grew. While India developed in those areas which require minimal Govt. support such as IT sector. You need only good communication lines which thankfully are run by big private companies. And they grew.
The above contrast is quite striking. Even now if in India E-commerce is growing astronomically then one reason out of many is that it doesn’t need an ecosystem nursed by Govt. rather it is growing because it addressed to greater inefficiency created or accumulated in last many years in the country. Another example, there is an start-up known as Shuttl which is into transportation business running pvt. fleet of small buses on major routes between office hubs and residential areas in Delhi NCR. My question is does Govt. was sleeping till date? There are so many routes on which there are hardly any public buses and people use owned cars to commute. Wouldn’t that be wonderful if one starts pvt. buses on that route. And that exactly what this start-up did. There are numerous examples like that.
In nutshell, brain-drain is not that bad. Good news is this that this phenomena (brain-drain) automatically slows down when opportunities back home are sprouting. Recent start-ups mania has shown how India’s vast population provides excellent market and also lab to test your start-up ideas.
In last some years we have seen many bright minds across revered campuses including IITs and IIMs turning down overseas/ domestic offers to try their entrepreneurial spirits. This sign is highly encouraging.
My thoughts only.
God Bless!
rishabhagarwaldotin 