Brain Drain in Indian Context

My last article was on Brain Drain, where we explored about it in details, about the concept, consequences and so on, but we did no...

My last article was on Brain Drain, where we explored about it in details, about the concept, consequences and so on, but we did not dig deep into the topic in Indian context, from where a major part of skilled professionals are spread out all over the world, precisely, to say, in most of the developed countries. Thus, I present you a concise overview of Brain Drain in Indian Context. Hope this will bring you clarity in your understandings….

A large number of professionals involving engineers, doctors, scientists, architects, teachers and nurses started emigrating mainly to the west from the late 1960’s onwards. These were some of the best brains trained in the publicly subsidized elite institutions like the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Indian Institute of Technology (IITS) and other regional engineering colleges. About 20 to 30 percent of graduates of three IITs and 56 percent of graduate doctors of AIIMS from 1956 to 1980 emigrated. They left India at a time when their services were needed the most. There was a concern that India was losing the professionals to the west. The phenomenon of brain drain has been continuing even today.

The UK was the main destination of Indian professionals until the end of the 1960’s. English as the medium of education and colonial ties between India and the UK helped them in migrating to the UK. In the 1970’s Canada overtook the UK and eventually the US overtook Canada. Indians are among the best paid professionals in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in the areas of IT, engineering, medicine, management, international finance, higher education teaching, architecture, law, journalism, film and TV, English writing and music. The US in 1999 had 1,65,000 Indian born residents holding science, social science and engineering degrees (S&E).

India has ranked first since 1993 in ‘principal’ employment based immigrant professionals excluding spouses, children and other dependents. In 1998, out of 3,72,000 ‘non-immigrants’ (temporary entrants) 69,000 were Indians. In the H-1B class, 62,544 were from India. In the UK, approximately two-thirds of all software professionals entering Britain are Indians. In 2000, out of 18,257 foreign IT professionals working in Britain, 11,474 were Indians.

Large number of highly skilled Indian migrants in the Us went there initially as students. In 2003-04, India ranked first in the US University enrolments for the third year in a row. The Indians accounted for 13.9 percent of foreign students in the US. Many Indian students with a post-graduate degree in management from the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), a bachelor’s degree in engineering from IITs, regional engineering colleges and Banaras Hindu University, a bachelor’s degree in medicine and surgery from the AIIMS and a master’s degree in science and technology from the University of Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru University emigrated to their host countries to pursue higher education and then entered the labour market there itself. The US has been the major destination of Indian students, as they hold ‘education fairs’ in various Indian cities to attract Indian students. The Report of the High Level Committee on Indian Diaspora (2001) estimated that in the US 38 percent of doctors, 12 percent of scientists, 36 percent of NASA employees, 36 percent of Microsoft employees, 28 percent of IBM employees and 17 percent of Intel employees were of Indian origins.

___________________________________________________________________

  

For more information, click on Diaspora, Brain Gain, Brain Drain,  Brain Exchange, Brain Waste,  Brain Gain in Indian Context, Brain Circulation, Indian Diaspora, New Indian Diaspora, Old Indian Diaspora

 Reference:

• Ajaya Kumar Sahoo and Laxmi Narayan Kadekar (edited), Global Indian Diaspora: History, Culture and Identity.

___________________________________________________________________

Related Questions:

Understanding concept of Brain Drain in Indian Context.

A brief statistical analysis of Indian Brain Drain.

Aptitude Amplifier ©2017. All Rights Reserved.