Monday, 27 January 2014

Brain drain: Boon for developed countries, Bane for India…



I was just going through my facebook wall and I came across an image shared by my friend. The image was, Barack Obama laughing and a caption was inserted over the image as - “Come on India! Increase your reservation & quotas. Your drain, our gain!”

Well, though, the image was meant for fun, but was speaking of the truth and suggesting a wake up call… It’s a time to reality check!!!

In the recent years, the cut-offs for admissions became close to 100% in the best Indian universities. While the institutes are in the race of getting the best students in the country, the ambitious youth who fail to meet the “irrational” demands had to compromise on their dream of occupying a seat in any of the prestigious Indian universities. This leads them to explore the scope of higher education abroad.

A recent study conducted by Indian Institute of Management- Bangalore (IIM-B) shows that the students going for higher studies abroad has increased by 256% in the last 10 years. When 53,000 Indian students went abroad for higher studies in 2000, the figure shot up to 1.9 lakh in 2010.

The increasing trend of brain drain of the skilled workers finally persuaded the government to take action. After witnessing a huge brain drain of doctors (among the 3,000 medical students went abroad in last three years, none returned), the health ministry has suspended issuing “no obligation to return certificates” to the medical students going abroad for higher studies.

Nowadays, the medical students going to the US for higher studies will have to sign a bond with the government, promising to return to India after completing his / her studies. If the student doesn’t fulfill the bond obligation, the ministry can write to the US and the permission for the student to practice in the country will be denied.

With better economic policies, with better facilities by industries and government promoting entrepreneurship, research friendly atmosphere, Industry – academy collaborations and the human capital to execute them, there is still hope for India. If proper measures are taken at a pacer rate, India can be saved!!! 

- Prateek Aloni

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