BPO Backlash

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<b>TECHNOLOGY BOOM RETURNS BACK INDIA'S BRAIN DRAIN</b> <!--emo&:ind--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/india.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='india.gif' /><!--endemo-->

WHEN Sharan Patil left India and moved to Britain, he was following an older generation of Indians who had emigrated, seeing the West as a land of opportunity.

But unlike that generation, who stayed away, he recently returned to India — part of a growing reverse migration of highly qualified professionals coming home, drawn by the opportunities offered by India’s booming economy.

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What began as a trickle a decade ago is now substantial enough to be talked about as a “reverse brain drain”. The lost talent is not only coming home, it is also doing so enhanced by skills and experience gained overseas that could have vast implications for this developing nation.

The centre of this new phenomenon is Bangalore, India’s high-technology capital. By one estimate, more than 35,000 “returned non- resident Indians” live there.

Sudip Nandy, an executive for the Bangalore technology firm Wipro, who recently returned after ten years in the United States and Britain, was surprised at a university reunion to discover how many fellow graduates had followed the same path as him.

“I thought I’d be the only person of my age who had come back. After all, ten years is a long time and many people don’t come back after that length of time away,” he said. “But there were lots who’d been away for up to 18 years and had returned, all in the past few years.”

When he left for the US in 1994, it was to catch the technology boom there. Now, after the Silicon Valley downturn and a stint in London, he is back to cash in on the Indian technology sector’s astonishing growth of 50 per cent per annum.

“The future of our industry is in India and China, so it made sense to come back,” he said. “I sense a tremendous energy in Bangalore now. In the UK, I would only have about one breakfast meeting a week. Now I have three or four.”

For Dr Patil, the chance of advancement far faster than that possible in the National Health Service played a big role in his decision. On his return to Bangalore from Manchester, he immediately got a post as a consultant, a position that would have been years off had he stayed in Britain.

India, still a developing country with millions of poor and no welfare system, also afforded him the chance to make a difference in a way that would not have been possible in Britain.

“The system in Britain was so well-oiled that I didn’t feel I was as useful there as I could be here,” he said. Since he returned, he and a colleague have looked into setting up their own private hospital and insurance scheme for poor farmers who could not afford treatment otherwise.

Manoj Anicatt, an ophthalmologist, opened his own clinic on his recent return to India after ten years away, something he could not have done so easily in Britain.

“Things are much less structured here, which breeds opportunity,” he said. “With more and more people earning more, the health industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors there is.”
While the opportunities may be many, adjusting to everyday life back in India is not always easy.

“When I got back, I couldn’t believe I had grown up here,” Dr Patil laughed. “The chaos, the traffic, the dirt. It took me a long time to stop abusing people in the street for honking their horns at me.”

Families are often the most reluctant to move back to India, especially children who have grown up used to all the mod cons of Western society.

“It’s been hardest on my wife and kids,” Dr Anicatt said. “They miss the cleanliness and convenience. My wife can’t get used to having to trudge around all the different shops for all the items rather than just nipping into Asda.”

Still, the rapid changes in India have made the transition less jarring than it would have been for an earlier generation.

“It’s a different country from the one I left,” Dr Anicatt said. “It used to be that someone wearing jeans would stand out like a sore thumb. That’s not the case any more.”

Mr Nandy said: “There have been some pleasant surprises, like finding out the wine here isn’t too bad. And even the customs people have got a lot politer.”

Bangalore’s main attraction for returning emigrants is that it is perhaps India’s most Westernised city.

“Coming here was a key factor in our decision to return,” Dr Anicatt said. “If we’d moved back to Kerala, we wouldn’t have survived. Just being able to take the kids to KFC makes a real difference.”

Returning emigrants often find that they come home permanently changed by their experience, and their changing needs are starting to change the face of the city. Though Mr Nandy is confident his stomach upsets and frequent bugs will subside in a few months, he can no longer contemplate living amid the chaos of an Indian city street.

He is searching for a house in one of Bangalore’s many spanking new gated communities, residential islands of calm with wide streets, green lawns, swimming pools and no power cuts, built for returning emigrants and for the growing tastes for Western luxury among the city’s smart set. Such luxuries are not within the reach of all returning emigrants, some having taken a considerable salary cut to come back. But even those who have say that they do not regret their decision.

“Everybody thought I was mad to come back, and tried to talk me out of it,” Dr Patil said. “But I feel India is the most exciting place in the world right now because we are still climbing and progressing. It’s much more exciting than when you’ve already climbed. There is so much scope to do things.”

For any young Indian thinking of leaving for Western shores, he has this message: “By all means go, but come back. Bring what you have learnt back with you.”

Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->