🧠 How Brain Drain is Straining India?
23,000 Indian millionaires have left India between 2014-18. What's going on?
What do Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, Parag Agarwal, and Leena Nair have in common?
They're all Indians who are leading multinational companies abroad. And not just that, they're role models for many of us. At some point or the other many of us have dreamt of moving abroad and living our own version of a perfect life.
This is exactly why the amount Indian students spend on overseas education is set to grow from the current $28 billion to $80 billion in 2024.
This phenomenon is called "Brain Drain", and India has been grappling with this for quite a while.
Surprisingly, not too long ago in the 1990s, India witnessed a reverse brain drain trend. We were relatively less affected by the dot com crash and the Asian financial crisis that affected most of the South Asian countries in 1997. Defying all odds we were growing at a pretty fast rate. So the ones who had been living abroad were choosing to move back.
But now the opposite is happening. Between 2016 and 2020, over 6 lakh Indians have given up their Indian citizenship. In comparison, only 10,645 foreigners have applied for Indian citizenship. Why is this happening and why is it such a big deal?
Let's find out.
How Does Brain Drain Affect India?
India has no dearth of people. And thanks to our growing population, our resources are limited too.
So isn't it better if more people move out?
The answer is simply a big no. According to a Morgan Stanley Bank report, 23,000 Indian millionaires left India between 2014-18. Also, the Global Wealth Migration Review found that 5,000 millionaires (2% of high net worth individuals in India) have moved out in the year 2020 alone. Not only this, 35,000 Indian entrepreneurs left India between 2014-20.
So, the ones who are of the highest economic value, the ones capable of generating employment and transformation are actually the ones who are choosing to move out.
This is exactly why despite having one of the highest numbers of science, engineering, and medicine graduates, India's research and development sector is not at par with the rest of the world. We face a shortage of medical staff in emergencies like the pandemic. All of this is because we have been unable to retain the talent within our country.
On the other hand, those looking to migrate to India are far and few. As of 1990, 0.9% of India’s total population was made up of migrants, whereas as of 2020, only 0.4% is.
In 2019, 95.3% of the migrant population originated solely from the same Sustainable Development Goal region (comprising Central and South Asian countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, etc.) Unlike the developed countries, India doesn't have highly educated and skilled migrants.
What Causes Brain Drain?
There exists a wide wage gap between India and the developed nations. The US pays 6 times as much to those in the field of academia (education and research) as India.
Plus, the US, the UK, Germany, Australia, and France are countries that offer the most scholarships to Indian students. In France, for instance, 7.1 crore worth of scholarships are given to Indian students every year.
Also, many, if not all countries offer citizenship if a certain amount of capital is invested in their countries. Since the pandemic, many countries are trying to utilize this scheme and attract more and more investment to ensure a speedy post-pandemic recovery. Canada is one such country: 69,014 Indians were deemed permanent residents by mid of 2021 alone.
We too have the Make In India movement in place to encourage domestic investment and innovation. But it's not enough. We still see a large outflow of businessmen and entrepreneurs each year.
This is because of the lack of infrastructure and support for businesses. Some MSMEs (Micro Small and Medium enterprises) were even forced to shut down permanently after the pandemic.
And countries like England are exploiting this situation by offering entrepreneur visas to those with good business ideas.
The youth of India will define its future. But how is that supposed to happen when a large proportion of the top-performing Indians, the real visionaries, move abroad?
The Vicious Cycle Of Brain Drain?
Just like money attracts more money, brain drain is the cause of more brain drain.
As we mentioned earlier, the success of Parag Agarwal and, Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella often inspires more people to leave India because they feel their talent will be valued more elsewhere.
Some time back, Elon Musk tweeted “USA benefits greatly from Indian talent” and well, where’s the lie?
According to a report by the United Nations, UAE (3.5 million), US (2.7 million), Saudi Arabia (2.5 million), Australia, and Canada host the largest number of Indian migrants.
And it's not just talent that we lose this way. Most Indian migrants fall into the highest or the medium to high tax slabs of the nations they are residing in. In the US for example, the average earnings of Indian families ( $123,700) are almost double the nationwide average ($63,922). Naturally, Indians contribute highly to the tax revenue of the US government. This tax revenue contributes to the further development of such countries making them a favorable destination for more migrants in the future.
Thus, with passing time it will become harder and harder for India to bridge the gap and come to par with such nations. If this tax revenue had come to India instead, it would have aided in the overall development of the country.
Can Brain Drain Be Reversed?
Reversing this brain drain will be a very complex process. You see, brain drain is not something that can be dealt with in isolation; it stems from the already existing economic, social, and political issues of a country.
The problem needs to be tackled at the roots. Both brains and brawns need to be reasonably rewarded. Innovators shouldn't have to struggle a lot- else they will move abroad.
We should aim to provide local incentives and a conducive environment for entrepreneurs and businessmen.
More importantly, our focus should be on ensuring quality education in India even at the grassroots level, that can make us better thinkers, instead of mindless executors.
The solution to brain drain is no secret. Even the Indian government has launched countless schemes. However, it is the implementation that we lack.
Comment below the ways by which we can stop the brain drain and make India the 'Sone ki Chidiya' that it deserves to be.
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