Indian origin Nobel laureates: Jun2011 edit

Several decades ago, India witnessed the beginning of the phenomenon termed as brain drain, as the country’s best brains started moving out to foreign lands in search of greener pastures and wider skies to stretch their wings. The wheel has now come full circle, with the cream of Indian intelligentsia flocking back to the country, as they watch opportunities spring up here with amazing speed. As latest news reports reveal, top-notch firms such as Tata Motors, Larsen & Toubro, the Aditya Birla group, Novartis and Cognizant are looking for Indians working abroad to fill senior positions. The infrastructure sector particularly is banking on this pool, since it is facing a severe shortage of talent. And returning expatriates are only too happy to oblige. This is a far cry from the days when bright young minds, disillusioned with the lack of a supporting and nurturing environment at home, sought refuge on foreign shores for their budding ideas. The fact that Nobel laureates of Indian origin such as Hargobind Khorana, the Indian-American biochemist who got the Nobel in Medicine in 1968, or the very recent winner Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, who shared the 2009 Nobel in Chemistry, carried out their groundbreaking research away from Indian soil, speaks volumes about the way the Indian growth environment was being percieved by aspiring minds. It was common knowledge until recently that most top B-school graduates preferred to move abroad for more lucrative jobs. All this seems to be changing for the better as more and more Indians are moving back to the homeland, and being welcomed into the fold by corporate bigwigs. The trend however, cannot just be attributed to a singular rise in opportunities at the home turf. The global financial crisis contributed quite a bit to the state of affairs, spelling doomsday for developed markets, tilting the scales in favour of countries like India. The crisis also led to a sudden increase in restrictive practices in the US and other markets, which came under pressure to give preference to local people in their hiring routines. Added to all this was the heartening fact that the pay packages doled out by Indian giants became very much at par with their foreign counterparts, setting in motion the reverse brain drain process. Highly skilled and qualified professionals are making a beeline for their native country, and that is indeed cause for jubilation. However, amid all this, it must not be forgotten that a return of professionals is not enough. The country needs to develop an environment that would facilitate the growth of entrepreneurs, scientists, innovators and the like. When China had first opened up its economy, it was the Chinese expatriates who were the first to invest in their homeland. The difference, however, was that these were entrepreneurs. While it is no mean feat that India has possibly the best set of managers and talented professionals that a country could ask for, we still have a long way to go in fostering original thought, initiative and enterprise. Instead of being complacent about bringing back the best talent to fill positions, we need to create a nurturing environment for people who would help create the most coveted postions. So that, in future, Nobel Laureates can proudly claim to be ‘Indian’, not just of ‘Indian origin’.