The Great Indian Brain Drain
Very few months ago, an Indian-born techie named Parag Agarwal took over as CEO of Twitter, about the same time that an Indian-born economist named Gita Gopinath was appointed as the first Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). They've both joined a growing list of Indians at the top of major worldwide organizations.
Many Indians welcomed their accomplishments, while others questioned them:
- How does success help India?
- Do these people help to strengthen the India brand?
- Do they reflect squandered Indian talent?
Let me show you some numbers. Since 2015, over 8 lakh Indians have renounced their citizenship. Since 2014, 23000 millionaires have emigrated from India. In reality, when it comes to the migration of the wealthy and educated, India ranks first. India has a staggering 65 percent part of the worldwide population, far ahead of China and the Philippines for the world's second most populated country.
Nonetheless, we must inquire:
- Is this restricting India's ability to innovate?
- Is it having an impact on our economic growth?
Long before globalization became common currency, brain drain was the buzzword in India in the 1970s.
What is brain drain and its Reasons?
The loss of human capital is a term that refers to the flight of skilled labor from developing nations to the Developed nations. Why does this happen? Conflict, political instability, a lack of opportunity, or health concerns are the most common reasons.
For decades, the West has benefited from brain gain, which simply means large-scale immigration of skilled labor. During the 1970s, many young Indians graduated from elite and subsidized public institutions only to find that jobs in India were not really financially attractive, So they began to leave the country to make the most of their degrees and skills in order to receive better rewards for their efforts and talent, and unlike short-term contract workers to gulf nations, the majority of these Indians never returned; instead, they became prominent bankers, entrepreneurs, innovators, and scholars abroad.
This was at a time when India needed such specialists the most; it was still a poor post-colonial country, and the migration of its finest and brightest is thought to have harmed India's economic prospects. The economic liberalization of 1991 changed things higher education institutions sprouted up as did several multinational companies foreign investments began flowing in as did long departed Indians some even say that the economic bonanza of the 1990s was largely due to this return of the Indian diaspora Indians who had left India returned along with capital information ideas and networks and all of this powered the economic boom but the trend lasted only a few years
The numbers tell the story. Millions of Indians were living and working outside India in 1997; by 2017, the amount has climbed to 17 million, indicating that India's brain drain problem remains. According to one estimate, between 1996 and 2015, more than half of the top scorers in class 10th and 12th board exams migrated abroad; they're still employed overseas, mostly in the United States; the best and brightest of Indian minds are living in and working for another country; this is brain drain 2.0.
An obvious explanation for this may be:
- Brains go where the Money is.
- Brains go where they're valued.
That is not to say that money does not play a role. Look at wages in the context of purchasing power parity compare the average wage in America versus that in India in academics you earn
- An Indian earns 6x in America compared to what he earn in India.
- In IT sector an Indian earns more than 2x.
- In management an Indian earns more than 3x.
- When it comes to education, India has come a long way; it has ensured that almost every child attends primary school, which is no small feat; however, higher education remains a challenge; we have some stellar institutions such as the IITs and IIMs, but none of them appear on the list of top global universities. Many good institutions in India have increasing cut-offs, causing students to leave to study overseas in order to secure better-paying jobs. These are expensive degrees, but they draw hundreds of thousands of Indian students.
Take Canada as an example. In 2016, there were 39000 Indians who became permanent residents of Canada. In 2019, that amount grew to over 80000, a more than 105 percent rise.
- Gender Equality is an ignored aspect of brain drain. By 2021, India's gender gap would have grown to 62.5 percent. There aren't enough women in technical and leadership posts, which originates from gender discrepancies in education, labor force participation, and income levels across the system, prompting many highly qualified women to go overseas with no plans to return.
- Many young people go because they want to experience life outside of India. They want to see the world. Many of them get used to what they see and experience and don't return. Many others return because they don't feel at home or the hassle of tracking changing visa rules is too much for them. For many people, the label of being an NRI is a badge of honor. Call it a colonial hangover. Call it the gift of Bollywood and their portrayal of NRIs.
So there is no single reason for leaving and not returning or for returning and we may disagree with many of these reasons for leaving India, but that does not change the fact that people are leaving and at what cost we end up contributing more to our host country than to our home country a lot of skilled Indian immigrants got subsidized education they went to schools and colleges with more than 90 subsidies who benefits from this subsidy other countries not India.
According to the associated chambers of commerce and industry, Indian students studying abroad cost India up to $17 billion in lost revenue each year. When they leave India, they are at the most productive part of their life; by the time they return, assuming they do return, they are typically a spent force with ideas and abilities that are no longer necessary, which leads to:
- Reduced economic growth
- Limited innovative capacities of the nation
- Lack of skilled manpower
I have some additional statistics to offer you from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) in the United States. India is the world's largest exporter of physicians, and this is a troubling statistic: there is one Indian doctor for every 1325 Americans in the United States, while there is one Indian doctor for every 2400 Indians in India.
India is losing physicians, engineers, and entrepreneurs to other nations, and it is losing a large portion of its skilled human capital to other countries. It is critical to understand what is driving this trend and to reverse it.
- Why do wealthy families with thriving enterprises want investor green cards?
- Why must an IT professional pray 24 hours a day, seven days a week to obtain an H-1B visa?
- Why does an Indian student wish to move overseas immediately after graduating from high school?
- Why do Indian-born inventors distance themselves from their birthplace?