An interesting (and well-written) example of
something we've all seen a great deal of in the
past few years - the story of one family's
decision to move back to India. I seem to have
seen Shoba Narayan on a blog somewhere - would somebody invite her to silk?
Udhay
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/papers/Return_to_India.pdf
A Note to Readers:
For decades, it was widely assumed that the
brightest Indians would go overseas to study and
eventually settle there. India offered few
opportunities except for those who had money or
political connections. For many ambitious,
middle-class Indians who had neither, going to an
American or British school meant not just getting
a better education as an engineer or a doctor;
it was also, usually, a passport to prosperity.
So pervasive was the phenomenon that people
called it the brain drain.
Today, though the evidence is slender, signs show
that the tide may be turning. The buzz phrase
du jour is the reverse brain drain. As economic
growth picks up in Asia with the arrival of
China and India on the global business scene,
Indian students are not leaving the country as
eagerly as they did in the past. If they do, they
go back home faster because of the attractive
professional opportunities there.
The fact that global companies are setting up
operations in India makes it easier for non-
resident Indians to return home, often without
even leaving the companies that employ
them. Bruce Chizen, CEO of San Jose-based Adobe
Systems, noted during an interview with
[EMAIL PROTECTED] that the companys Indian
operations were set up by an expat Indian
engineer who was eager to return there. Pawan
Goenka, CEO of Mumbai-based Mahindra and
Mahindras Auto division, is another example of a
non-resident Indian who returned to India
after working for General Motors in the U.S. Raju
Narisetti, a veteran journalist, was once the
managing editor of The Wall Street Journals
European edition in Brussels; he is now the editor-
in-chief of Mint, a new business daily in New
Delhi. The examples go on and on
.
Because this trend is so new, studying its impact
is difficult. Vivek Wadhwa, who has
been researching immigrant issues with colleagues
from Duke Universitys Pratt School of
Engineering, says large numbers of skilled Indian
immigrants are heading back because of
the six to 10 years it takes for their green
cards or permanent resident status to arrive.
This is a double loss for the U.S. One is that
we lose good people. The second loss is that they
will become our competitors, he told
[EMAIL PROTECTED] The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE),
a network of Indian entrepreneurs, estimates that
60,000 IT professionals from the U.S. have
returned to India.
India [EMAIL PROTECTED] decided to take a
different approach toward exploring this
phenomenon. Rather than a statistical overview,
we chose to take an in-depth look at the
experience of one family and view it as a microcosm of a larger trend.
Writer Shoba Narayan was born in India and came
to the U.S. as a student. She settled down
in the U.S., became a citizen, wrote for
publications such as Time, Newsweek, Gourmet, The
New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and
authored a book, while her husband Ram had
a successful career on Wall Street. After 20
years in the U.S., the family moved back to India in
2005. This is their story.
As you read it, remember that it is being retold tens of thousands of times.
<snip, 23 pages more at the URL above>
--
((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
