BRAIN drain and gain in India

                                                    In Globalization course I had

a chance to read about brain drain and gain in India. There are some interesting facts presented in the article.

 Main destination of Indian migrants is USA. Because of the USA immigration regulation the number of Indians varies (30,237-1999; 71,105-2002; 50,372-2003; 70,116 in 2004).  They can be classified in two categories unskilled and knowledge workers. Majority of Indian immigrants is urban, educated and “English-speaking” (talent) come under the H1-B category and work in high end jobs or pursue higher studies. They created Indian Diaspora, which changed image and identity of India.  The overall annual income average for all US families is $50,046, Indian families have average $70,708. It indicates the empowerment of skilled Indian in developed country. Indian born US residents hold 13% science and engineering degree in 1999. The flow of Indians in US University is on the first place- 14.4%.  USA policies help talent people to immigrate on temporary basis and allows to student to stay. It happens for several reasons. The first is USA allows entering immigrants because they need science, technology and engineering specialist who will work for economic development. There are not enough native workers.  The second is high skilled students who graduated from IIM, IIT have no places to work in India. They cannot apply knowledge in Indian market, because companies do not locate in India. Country had 26.8 million Human Recourses in Science and Technology (HRST) professionals and 327 million non- HRST in 2004, so I assume that it is more than India is needed. Two –thirds of HRST are unemployed; it is the reason to migrate. The third reason is that student’s choice on major depends not on job market, but on parental wealth and societal expectations. Providers also oriented not on job market, but on students wish. So the demand and supply for education and job is different. As a result students go abroad. This was the reasons of “brain drain”. But how India turns it to “brain gain”?

Khadira (2011) explained the process in the following way: India did not plan to gain from “brain drain”, but the government tried to stop loosing the brightest minds. India receives remittances, workers send money back to their families, and it is huge amount, more than India spent on their educational reforms.  Policy makers implement The Eleventh Five-Year plan 2007-2012 to solve main problems like: poor standards and quality of education, international partnership, and undeveloped curricula. The idea was good, but it did not work. It happens because government did not realize the power of regulations and did not monitor the process well or there is not enough information, as the article was written in 2011. India sees the offshore students as political promoters and benefit generators through scientific diasporas. The link of India and scientific diasporas is the opportunity to gain from “brain drain”. It is the only evidence of “brain gain”.

After reading this article I can say that there was too many numerical data without clear explanation of reasons why it happens, or it was too broad and far from “brain drain”. Also I did not see how “brain drain” moved to “brain gain”. For me it is still “brain drain”. Maybe the author used own definition of “brain gain” and my personal understanding is different.Overall, this article gives general picture of the situation in the past, and there is need to update it.

Khadria, B. (2011). India amidst a global competition for its talent: A critical perspective           on policy for higher and university education. In S. Marginson, S. Kaur, & E. Sawir     (Eds.), Higher education in the Asia-Pacific: Strategic responses to globalization (pp.       395-412). Dordrecht: Springer.