A recent study reveals that Indians working abroad will migrate back to India within the next five years.
| Manjunath S R, senior director, HR, NetApp India: New sectors, new opportunities: As the overall GDP grows, many sectors in India continue to grow/expand rapidly. The economic liberalisation of India that started in early 1990's paved the path for ongoing continuous reforms across several policies promoting international trade/investment, deregulation, initiation of privatisation, tax reforms, and inflation-controlling measures. This has helped all key sectors (manufacturing, BFSI, IT, automobile, retail, hospitality, etc) to rapidly grow and create career opportunities; A personal choice: Expat Indians want to return as they prefer to live here, spend time with family, want their children to get educated here, pursue wise investments, etc. Also, the government has invested heavily in educational systems to ensure the quality of education and the infrastructure is within the reach for students to advance in their studies. |
There was a time when your neighbour never missed the opportunity to brag about how his/her son/daughter is employed with a ‘leading MNC' in the US, draws an exorbitant salary (while also quoting exact figures in foreign currency) and has the kind of lifestyle they believe Indians can never enjoy back home. In India, for years, the craze of moving "abroad" was perceived as the ultimate goal for any self-respecting, ambitious professional chasing bigger goals, right? Let's just first find out why the craze existed. Shanmugam Nagarajan, co-founder & chief people officer, 24/7 Customer says, "India has been a ‘job starved' nation for a long time - we have missed out on several job revolutions in the past. There were not sufficient job opportunities and meritocracy did not work for our system because of which people with merits found the opportunities abroad and moved. First, the doctors in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, then the civil engineers in the 1970s and 1980s and finally, the technology boom started taking place around the world and from the 1980s onwards, the technologists started moving West."
However, the latest study findings released by Kelly Services India indicate an estimated 3,00,000 Indian professionals working overseas are expected to return between 2011- 2015. 18 per cent of the respondents who moved between the 80s and 90s validated better job culture as one of the reasons influencing their decision to move back. The key reasons for "reverse migration" as per the report during 2008-2011 are: a) the presence of an insecure job market overseas (58 per cent); b) existence of personal growth opportunities back home (34 per cent) and c) the fulfillment of living on native land (28 per cent). Therefore, the craze of moving to a "foreign country" may not hold true, as India Inc is shining (at least) brighter than its western counterparts.
- Viren Naidu
The writer can be reached at viren.naidu@timesgroup.com
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