BRAIN DRAIN

Brain Drain is actually a bill that gives visas to high tech foreign industrialists to exploit the greatest brains of the 3^rd world countries for the sake of American industries. Today we are proud to be a part of immense globalization. But we did not give a glance at the less noticed consequence of globalization- “BRAIN DRAIN”. Globalization has definitely reduced the distance between countries and has given a fairly well integrated global market for the high end human capital, but it has brought with it some serious consequences for the 3^rd world countries:-a shortage of skilled and competent people, hike in billing rates and many more…. “Brain Drain” has been a major concern for us for over 30 years now.

We conducted a survey in MITS to analyze the possible causes of brain drain.

If I speak in terms of infrastructure available in India then obviously in a developing economy like ours its difficult for a government to provide high state of the art technologies at par with the developed countries. But then we belong to a fast growing progressive economy due to which there have been continuous upgradations in the level of infrastructure and new technologies have continuously been introduced. Is this the only reason for an increase in the percentage of brain drain every year?? Emigrants who leave India for this reason often say “IT’S HARD TO SAY GOOD BYE”, is it really hard?????... Another factor is that 90% of the qualified techies who are nurtured by high state of the art technologies abroad are lured by the handsome paychecks and attractive lifestyles of the west.

Nobody has ever realized that the headhunt is still on and rather increasing in India. Brain Drain first of all hard hits the software sector in India. It’s basically due to a mismatch between the growth of software sector and the number of engineering graduates every year, of which 40% are exported to foreign countries. So the Indian market is facing an acute shortage of qualified techies. Every day a new country lures the software talent away and the paucity of software professionals in India continue to intensify for the Indian IT industry. IT Brain Drain in India is landing the mushrooming IT industry into a crisis. NASSCOM-Mc Kinsey study says that the software job market will remain tight and difficult as India will require 2.2 million IT workers by 2008. The country’s IT capita; is gripped with a terrible shortage of software professionals, that companies are unable to sign contracts and complete projects.

Even the I IT’s are unable to trap the fresh graduates in India. Every year 1/3^rd of IITians leave India but the Q is, to whom do the remaining 2/3rd serve. Few of them go to management schools, banks and the ones with technical bent are absorbed by IT firms like IBM, Infosys,SUN Microsystems,Wiprossss etc. which supply cheap offshore labour to foreign countries. So only few are left to work with other Indian industries. A country disproportionately depends upon its brains and IITians are worth much more than the nominal cost of educating them.

It’s very right here to say:-

BEES TRAVEL FOR MILES SEARCHING FOR THE RIGHT NECTAR. BUT THE REAL SWEETNESS OF THEIR EFFORTS IS REALIZED ONLY AT HOME.

• It was in the year 2005 when TCS had been looking for 300 qualified engineers for developing telecommunication software but managed to recruit only 15 techies.
• Intech solution had lost a couple of its high profile clients in the year 2005 as the company had just 28 software engineers.

Now these are some of the serious consequences of Brain Drain. This is what the Indian companies like Wipro and Infosys advertise these days:-

WHY GO TO WEST FOR A AJOB AS ATTRACTIVE PAY PACKAGES AND INCENTIVES ARE AVAILABLE IN INDIA ITSELF.

Now that is the real scenario in India at the moment. But there is a big Q as to what can we do about this sensational issue. Probably we need to take higher education more seriously and obtain a ten fold or 100 fold increase in the supply of quality masters and PhD’s. We are accustomed to boast about the 6 IIT’s and steady stream of newspaper articles of their international success. How many engineers do we fetch from these Indian Institutes each year??? The degradation in quality of the next 10 universities is simply mind boggling. Why do we pretend to have a system of higher education which is only marginally credible??? This is something that India needs to ponder about and should work for it. Ironically, one of the biggest hurdles in obtaining an efficient system of higher education is low wages for faculty in academics. Another ambiguous Q that needs a sincere thought- What about the Indians who go abroad for higher education don’t come back?? They spread our Indian culture across the globe but they don’t carry that little essence of responsibility towards their own nation. I am not a relative to those emigrants, neither am I the government nor am I an economist, But I being an Indian would convey my sincere request them to- “COME BACK HOME….YOUR NATION NEEDS YOU….”