Brain Drain: A Challenge for India
The term "Brain Drain" has come into limelight with the trend of educated and skilled people and workforce moving from one country to another to achieve career gains. As a result, the talent of such people becomes available to the nation to which they relocate. The biggest disadvantage of brain drain is the depletion of talent from the native nation which may badly need their skills and talent. It is the migration of country's intellect which may have otherwise served their motherland and contributed to its prosperity. Use of the word ‘Brain’ usually pertains to any skill, competency or attribute that is a potential asset and use of the word ‘Drain' implies that this rate of exit is at a greater level than ‘normal’ or than what might be desired. Linking the two implies that the departure of the most talented at an appreciable rate. Brain drain is usually regarded as an economic cost, since emigrants usually take with them the fraction of value of their training sponsored by the government or other organizations. Challenge occurs when the net flow of expertise is heavily in one direction. Brain Drain contradicts the international economic and political objective of converging the gap between developed and the underdeveloped countries. Brain Drain is commonly referred to as the “Human Capital flight”. Human Capital is treated as an important productive factor which is subject to the economies of Scale. Therefore, Brain Drain is a challenge that must be looked upon.Once the challenge is looked upon, a country works towards overcoming it. There is increasing awareness that migration can benefit both the “sending” and the “receiving” country. In the long run “brain drain” may be converted into “brain gain”, something that is particularly relevant to India in its Digital era. In order to overcome this challenge in India, one must dig further into the problem. These questions must be thought upon- What caused Brain Drain in India? Why do people migrate away from India? What challenges lie ahead for India to overcome it?
Migration of workers from India has been taking place since the 19th century. In the mid- 1800’s, Indian peasants were shipped by the British to its colonies to work in plantations. Going through the data on tax rates in India, it is found that during 1970-74 income tax was at an all time high. Such a high tax rate drained out the talented brains and entrepreneurs from India. It should not be forgotten that one had to get hundreds of approval in the license raj era. Such policies led to corruption in the system which forced honest businessman to migrate away from India. The challenge for India lies in introducing policies that decelerate Brain Drain.
India is a country with rapidly growing population where “only 10% of the students have access to higher education in the country” (Times of India). The quantity and quality of jobs generated does not match the growing intellectual population. Graduates in India need necessary equipments to carry out their research. Reservation system might lead to a reduction in positive correlation between the labour a person puts in and the reward he/she gets. Individuals often gain jobs through personal contacts versus merit. This fuels a frustration within the system. The graduates have no choice but to look for greener pastures abroad. As the world shrinks due to better connectivity, the challenge to retain the brain pool enlarges. Brain Drain occurs if the ‘brain’ migrates to the other country. Engagement of a person on virtual platforms could lead to brain drain. Underemployment is one of the factors leading to 'Brain Drain'. Underemployment is primarily the employment of workers with high skills in low level wage jobs that do not require such abilities. In the digital era, the challenge lies in utilising the ‘Digital India Campaign’ in favour of India.
As people work for other countries, they receive remittances. It might seem that India benefits from remittances. India would benefit if the remittances are channelled towards developing India. ‘Brains’, that is, ‘knowledge and skills’ are required for a country to develop. The challenge for India lies in bringing in the ‘source of remittances’, that is, the ‘brains’ rather than ‘only remittances’. In other words, there has to be more of intangible transfers (innovations, experience) rather than only tangible transfers (remittances) from the high skilled migrants to their country of origin,India. Recently, declining oil prices reduced the remittances coming to India. The challenge for India is to be independent in an era of interdependency. Further, the ‘demonstration effect’ of foreign salaries artificially inflates local salaries, despite the lower average productivity of labour in the system. Other countries might benefit from India's 'cheap labour' but India would benefit if and only if that 'cheap labour' becomes "rich in knowledge and skills" and returns. The challenge lies in attracting people with potential to India. Moreover, Indian institutes create hype by publicizing the mind-boggling salaries being offered in foreign countries. Push and pull factors lead to brain drain. It is a challenge to make these factors work in favour for India.
The brain drain benefits individuals more than society. Intrinsic desires works better than any kind of incentive plans. The challenge is to create intrinsic desires that motivate people to work for the nation. It is really alarming to notice that the average age of migrants is between 20 and 40 years. This means that India is losing the cream of the intelligentsia at the most productive period of their life. It is really tragic to see that country fails to recognize its own talents and applauds it only when the developed and advanced countries of the West put their stamp of recognition and appreciation. The challenge is to recognise the talent as early as possible, creating more talents and providing proper tools to realise the talents. If talent is not addressed properly, it might lead to passion drain which would further lead to brain drain. 'Knowledge is Wealth'. Hence the drain of knowledge is the drain of wealth. A brain that fails to implement its idea is doomed to drain and wastage. The challenge is to implement the knowledge of highly experienced people.
If brain drain continues,India will be rendered intellectually impoverished and impotent. In order to turn brain drain into brain gain, India must offer job stability and a career. The “Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs” (MOIA) was established in 2004. The MOIA “focuses on developing networks with and amongst Overseas Indians with the intent of building partnership with the Diaspora” (MOIA 2013). MOIA helps India connect to its drained brain. The challenges are also been looked upon by attempting to create entrepreneurs who help in generating jobs. Presently, India is witnessing a start-up buzz. The challenge is to attract the people with potential to be a part of Indian start-up culture. India needs to reform its banking sector, improve its infrastructure, and offer better tax incentives. Challenge for India lies in strengthening both the demand and supply side of the market for talent, so that productivity and wages levels can rise in tandem.To maintain the quality, diversity and critical mass of talented people,India has to look towards the intrinsic desires of highly skilled.
One must think of attaining higher equilibrium. Brain Drain is beneficial when the skilled people return to India. “Brain Gain” is the commonly used term to refer to a situation when human capital comes in. The challenge is to outweigh the costs of brain drain by benefits of brain gain. The idea is that young people must build skills, savings, and social networks while abroad or through online platforms and then use their accumulated human, financial, and social capital to the benefit of the home country. For the balance of power and for the development of the world, it is very important to stop the phenomena of Brain Drain. One must look towards Brain Gain which would help a country prosper. Enough work opportunities must be provided. One must believe that for every challenge there lies an opportunity to overcome it and emerge as a giant. One must be inspired to work for a country he/she has been initially assigned to. As there are less of visa troubles now, it must be utilised to its best as India is where the action is today. India presents excellent options, including a thriving start-up and Make in India culture. India stands to gain as it was blessed with a challenge to gain. In order to overcome challenges in India, natives must learn from the world around and apply it to their country, their India. Once the challenges are addressed thoroughly, brain drain would turn into magnet for excellence. Union Minister for Science and Technology said, "Earlier there used to be brain drain. Now a reverse trend has started. Around 175-180 scientists have returned to India in the recent past" (Times Of India). Now the challenge for India is to address the reverse trend in a manner which benefits the individual, the society and the world at large.
