Hi, http://www.people.hbs.edu/mdesai/publications.html
I started off to challenge a Harvard MBA prof's article on how he thinks Indian economy was adversely affected when bright young Indians turned up in huge numbers in 1990s on H1B visa and post Sep11, 2001 many agencies including ILO, DFID (UK) and Harvard's prof's Desai and Kapur and many other US based so-called Indians sought to show what they think of it - negative of course. http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/migrant/projects/skillmig/index.htm All articles about India are researched by so-called Indians or Indian origin. Maybe they were under some pressure. http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/migrant/projects/skillmig/index.htm ILO/DFID 2002 Perhaps they wnated to show they are more Americans than the rest , thus, the sudden surge in research on how harmful it is for brown skinned young men to come to US - not for US but for India etc . Ofcourse, it might remind some of the 1880s US and Canadian policies preventing East Asians of emigrating to these nations - through specific treaties to that effect. Following these researches US H1B quota got slashed to a third of its then level - so in 2003 it dropped from 195,000 to mere 58,000 (another 7,000 reserved for Chile and Singapore guys ) Lost Focus: After reading his artcile I lost focus on what I was planning to say. He seemed to be on another planet in another galaxy and which was maybe in another universe.So first my rebuttal or opinion on what I thought was the issue. I thought the issue was like all doctors and nurses leave India and come to the US/UK then Indians would die of disease or that all the teachers come to the developed countries then children would become illiterate - or something like that Such issues were raised before Bill Gates in 2007 in a US Congressional meeting on how to make US strong in technology and the role of skilled workers from abroad. He said that few doctors actually turn up from abroad and are helping design new treatments etc or transmitting nowledge back home helping patients etc worldwide (including their homeland) . KILLER ARGUMENT AGAINST BRAIN DRAIN That makes sense since the business model is - get top skilled guys from everywhere (or wherever) and design world class products or services in US and sell/market in all nations including developing nations. On that front US is having strange policy of allowing Green Card straightaway to foreign nurses - but not to engineers . Figure out the reasons. One of my ex-roommates in Boston (Harvard area) was civil engineer from Uganda who became a nurse - to get high pay and Green Card -after clearing the licensing exams. He asked me to do the same - but then what use of getting a Harvard degree in education. KILLER ARGUMENT KILLED Now that could very well be a killer argument - that skilled workers leave India and not enough are left Indian economy might suffer - but skilled workers (like Indian population) are a trainable resource and with Right To Education - that trainable pool of wo/manpower is likely to ensure that India is not going to run short of nurses, doctors, teachers, engineers and most other guys and gals. What India might need is to recall all the top US profs at Harvard, MIT, including Amartya Sen the Nobel Laureate (of Indian origin), so that they can teach at Indian univs and act as role models therein :-) .Even the second generation Indian Americans should be asked to contribute to the development of the land of their fathers and mothers and all previous forefathers (maybe including Harvard Prof Desai). Of course, many would back out. On the other hand, many skilled workers are becoming truly global - just like first Americans in 1700s and 1800s became integrated to European economy during the 20th century (incl during the World Wars and beyond). Having set up back office operations first in India and now throughout the globe they are benefiting the land of their origin. Global communications and travel are increasing at an increasing rate - thus old assumptions that once an Indian leaves India s/he is gone for ever. That is as false as saying that any UK/UK citizen expat in an overseas position will never return. DESAI's ARGUMENT Now what flummoxed me is that his argument was totally on a non issue. He never discussed what mighthappen to Indian scene - whether there will be anarchy or lack of essential services etc. He never said that because of Brain Drain Indian economy would not grow because its brain power is reduced. He based it on a completely off the topic issue. He said that because these guys and some gals selft for foreign shores (he specifically singled out NRIs in USA) India loses tax revenue to the tune of ).58% of its GDP (basing his argument on the fact that NRIs in US though only 1 million [as per him] earn ten percent of what billion strong Indians earn in India. It is always damaging to have a narrow perspective - but if one has never worked in India and never paid taxes there one can never know how paltry are Indian salaries and how difficult it is to get jobs in India since for every job there are so many more applicants, CALCULATIONS WRONG Thus, his calculation that if an NRI were back in India his/her tax amount would be one third of that s/he pays in the US. He also takes into account the lifestyle of that individual in US and similar one in India. Off the cuff I would say that to maintain similar lifetsyle (ofcourse you cannot have same quality water or air or aircondtioned bungalows) you would certainly need to earn more n India - if you were settled in the US for long. But if you were here for less than 7-8 years you would be hand to mouth - compared to lifestyle back in India. I know guys and gals who worked with Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro in India - who after two years got Rs3 lakh per annum or US$7,000) , which is one tenth of what the get in the US - at the minimum prevailing wage rate in the US. Anyway, even if these guys were earning in India as much as they are earning in the US so what!!? SO what India if not getting their tax revenue (the learned prof even asks India govt to tax the NRIs (see Sep 2004 article - thats when I came to US/Harvard http://www.people.hbs.edu/mdesai/publications.html ) . There are scores of others who are taking there place and new people are getting jos -- decades of under-employment is getting abolished ( I wonder if has read anything on Indian economy's under-employment - must have since he was a Fulbright scholar to India - but perhaps Indians did not treat him well there) I think there is no reason to go on - there is nothing left to argument against. Assam should have more skilled citizens/entrepreneurs (not just workers or skilled labor as ILO says). Even Harvard professors at Harvard Business School do not earn as much as many of the Brain Drain workers in other fields such as IT, medicine. That may be one reason for the obsession with the salaries and qualifications seen Desai's article -- no mention of Indian economy at all. Locals against outsiders - haven't we seen that in many parts of India - like Maharashtra recently. Ofcourse, all fingers of a hand are not alike - as the Indian saying goes. Any comments Umesh PS: The background: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5888.html A recent article by Harvard Business School Professor Mihir Desai (a Gujarati of Indian origin - maybe migrated from India to US like many 8,000 other professors in various US univs ) about how the emigration or migration of skilled workers in 2001 adversely affected Indian economy to the tune of 0.5% of India's GDP has made me realize the double edged sword that is globalization. One man's meat can be another man's poison. As per the logic so great was the exodus that Indian economy did not grow as much as it could have - just the same logic given by many communists in India and also by India nationalists who promote the age old tradition of ex-communicating anyone (including Mahatma Gandhi) for traveling overseas. Going abroad is bad -- Desai must know - he hails from the land where Gandhi was excommunicated - Gujarat. However, Gujaratis form the largest contingent of Indian Americans so perhaps he has a skewed perspective. Maybe from Gujarat too many people are migrating westwards - as the saying goes -- If one Patel gets the US GreenCard then another 99 follow on it. Patels are from Gujarat - like Prof Desai. Gujarat's state capital - Ahmedabad - has one of the the busiest US consulates in India despite Gujarat being no center of IT technology . In fact, no renowned engg or medical college exists in Gujarat. To be fair Gujaratis have not been making beeline for foreign shores recently - but since before Mahatma Gandhi have traveled and lived across Africa , Europe and now America. I just checked Prof Desai's webpage http://www.people.hbs.edu/mdesai/ He doesn't seem to be biased against Indians, though not an Indian by birth or growth. Infact he has only written one paper (actually two - one is to advise Indian govt to tax Indians working abroad) on Brian Drain in his entire career (in 2002) - so perhaps venturing into an area of political economy ( his PhD in this field - in international finance) which is new to him. Always good to try new areas. He can also . Umesh Sharma Washington D.C. 1-202-215-4328 [Cell] Ed.M. - International Education Policy Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Class of 2005 http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu info) http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info) www.gse.harvard.edu/iep (where the above 2 are used ) http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/ http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/ --------------------------------- Sent from Yahoo! Mail. The World 's Favourite Email. _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
