23 September 2022

Brain Drain From India Is Over

In the year 2017:

Not even 200 of the approximate 10,000 students from the Indian Institutes of Technology took up positions outside India last year. Fifty students, who make up the largest contingent, will be leaving from IIT-Bombay, followed by 40 from Delhi, 25 from Kharagpur, 19 from Kanpur, 13 from Madras, 17 from Roorkee and five from Guwahati. In 2012, 84 IIT-B candidates had accepted international job offers.

“Compared to 20 years ago, a very small percentage of students go abroad today. This is contrary to the general perception ,” says IIT-Delhi director V Ramgopal Rao. “Twenty years ago, 80% of the BTech class used to go abroad. Now these numbers are insignificant.

Something in the economic balance for Indian tech workers has changed historic brain draining migration patterns. 

Some of this may be due to remote work. Some of this may be due to an increased demand for tech workers in the domestic economy of India. Some of this may be due to a reduced demand for tech workers abroad that graduates from universities in India used to fill. It could also reflect a shift from hiring new college graduates to hiring tech workers with more experience who have proven themselves in the industry. I don't know enough about the economics of this industry to know.

2 comments:

Dave Barnes said...

It's OK.
There are millions of Indians who would move here if allowed.
Think how many Dalits would see it as a chance to escape the Hindu caste system.

andrew said...

And yet, emigrants from India are disproportionately Brahmin.

In practice, Dalits who seek to escape the Hindu caste system usually attempt to do so by converting to Christianity or Islam. Everywhere else is too unfamiliar and offers them too few opportunities that they can utilize.