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India Beckons!
Rahul Chandran
Friday, May 30, 2003
IT PROFESSIONALS, WHO ONCE COULDN’T WAIT TO get to the U.S., are now streaming back to India. Some are coming back on their own volition, seeing India now provide the same career opportunities and lifestyle that they sought in the U.S. Others have undertaken the long trip home due to circumstances, when a pernicious downturn forced their employers to lay off workers. But most don’t regret their decisions.

siliconindia takes a look at this new phenomenon, “the reverse brain drain.”

Hariprasad V. Nair, Technical Manager-Software, Force Computers India
For too long, Indian industry and politicians have been complaining about “brain drain,” as gifted scientists left for greener pastures in countries where they felt they would be more appreciated. When Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO) lost one such young scientist working on their Electronic Warfare and Missile Systems project to the lure of money and economic stability, that certainly seemed the case. However, Hariprasad V. Nair, currently Technical Manager-Software at $18 billion Force Computers’ India operations, decided after five years in the U.S. to come back to India.

After graduating with a masters from the Indian Institute of Technology (Madras), Nair was drawn to the vision of doing something wonderful for his country. He was offered the position of scientist at India’s premier research organization, DRDO, which he accepted. However, six years into his job at the prestigious electronic warfare and missile systems project, Nair felt the need to realign his interests. “Obviously, career development was a major criterion. But I was not willing to put up with the government practice of awarding promotions based on seniority alone.” And so, Nair passed up the opportunity to continue working on cutting edge technology at DRDO.

“Working at the DRDO gave me a lot of satisfaction but not much else. I felt the need to draw a line between my own career goals and continuing at DRDO. I chose the former,” says Nair. An offer at Wipro Systems saw him leave for American shores on a consulting job. Once in the U.S., Nair was in his element. He realized that American firms laid as much stress on people management as on actual technical skills. “The best practices at many of these companies helped me hone these skills. Suddenly, I found the right ways to interact with my team and co-workers to ensure maximum productivity. This is lacking in India,” Nair reckons.

Nair joined Silicon Graphics Inc. in July 1997. At Silicon Graphics, Nair was involved in the product development of SGI Octane, Odyssey graphics system and Microsoft Windows based SGI products. But after three years at SGI, Nair grew restless, feeling the need to be in a more people management oriented role. Jasmine Networks offered him that opportunity. “At Jasmine, I found my perfect job. I was leading a team of engineers working on strategizing and monitoring progress for the platform software group of the project Prism. The job afforded me the sort of discretion to lead my team as long as we delivered. It was great.”

Five years in the U.S. however, had given Nair a much better appreciation of Indian industry. He decided to come back home. Nair did not think twice about relocating with family to India. “As far as career development is concerned, India is as good an options as any nowadays,” Nair opines. “Industry here has become more dynamic, with excellence being recognized and rewarded. The days of reverse brain drain are just beginning,” he says.

Ajay Prabhu, VP, Strategic Business Units, QuEST
From Hubli in north Karnataka to Amherst, Massachusetts was not such a strange move for young technology graduates like Ajay Prabhu. But the journey back to India—chucking a good job at the Hewlett Packard subsidiary Agilent Technologies—to take over as India operations manager certainly seemed a strange move to some of Prabhu’s friends. Not to him though. For Prabhu, the lure of the home country as well as a challenging position at Bangalore made relocating to India a logical shift.

When Prabhu applied for undergraduate studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, he fully intended to pursue a career in microwave electronics in the U.S. His choice of subject was esoteric. The telecom revolution was well underway and most immigrants chose to pursue that field. However, Prabhu chose to research the field of very high frequency amplifiers. Prabhu says, “Nothing prepared me for the relentless practical approach by my professors at U-Mass. During my doctoral thesis, one professor insisted that I spend three weeks at a machine shop and see machinists cut and manufacture tools. This grassroots principle has worked wonders for their industry.”

Fresh out of college, Prabhu took on an assignment at the manufacturing division of H-P’s Microwave Test Systems, which was later spun off as Agilent Technologies. Starting out as a manufacturing engineer in August 97, Prabhu worked his way up the ranks steadily. Further heights beckoned but in March 2002, Prabhu decided to quit and return to India. He was then the department manager of electrical engineering at Agilent.

“We have seen the industry maturing to a point where career opportunities are pretty good in India. As long as you have the skill sets and have positioned yourself well, there are numerous opportunities for the right people,” Prabhu says. Currently a vice president for strategic business units in QuEST India, Prabhu has graduated from a “technical person” to a more “people person.” “Here I find the need to coax ideas out of my team and encourage them to speak to me,” Prabhu says of his job. To that end, Prabhu meets his co-workers in an informal setting every Saturday. “Our Saturday lunches have become famous at QuEST India. I am surprised at the number of ideas generated every time I go out with a bunch of guys.”

Giridhar Kolanupaka, Technical Consultant, Tata Elxsi Ltd.
Giridhar Kolanupaka set out to the U.S. in the summer of ‘97, armed with a B.E in Mechanical Engineering from Osmania University. He had already been accepted for the masters program in mechanical engineering at the Tennessee Technological University. He went to the U.S. with high hopes. He returned to India five years later, disillusioned but wiser for the experience.

After graduating from Tennessee Tech., Kolanupaka landed a job at the Detroit facilities of General Motors as an applications engineer for hardware in the loop simulators. However, at GM, Kolanupaka found recognition hard to come by. “We would put in the long hours but for an employee on contract, it was really difficult to get into the radar of the powers that be,” Kolanupaka says wryly. Five years and numerous appraisals later, Kolanupaka decided that it was time to leave. With his area of interest being digital electronics and control systems, Kolanupaka did not find any trouble finding his feet in India. “Tata Elxsi was doing some good work in the field and naturally, I gravitated towards this company. Besides, from GM in the U.S. to Tata in India was really a logical shift,” he insists.

“A couple of days before I was due to return, I was asked to stay back at General Motors. But by then, I had made up my mind,” Kolanupaka recalls. “Besides, nothing they could offer would have made me stay back,” he adds with a laugh.

Jijo P.I., Technical Lead, Xalted Networks Inc.
When Jijo P.I. left for the U.S. in 1999 as a consultant with Intel Corp. he had no idea of a coming recession. After 18 months Jijo knew better when he failed to have his contract at Intel renewed. Lucent was still hiring though, and Jijo joined the telecom major’s Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) product line in 2001. In a couple of months the beleaguered company began to feel the first tremors of the tech meltdown that would ensue. Jijo’s department was shut down and he was shunted to the company’s optical division. A year later, though, the optical division was shut down as well and Jijo had to come back to India.

“I thought the boom would last for ever,” says Jijo of his U.S. experience. “For those of us who went when the boom was at its peak, things were happening much too fast. Before I knew it I was headed for New Jersey. It was a roller coaster ride,” he says.

But Jijo had to return home, one of the many who made the trip back not by choice, but by circumstance. In India though, he found his skill sets in demand. “Soon after moving back, I was offered a position at Xalted Networks which I accepted,” he says. “At first, there was the fear that the slowdown would affect India as well, but our industry was mature enough to position itself correctly,” he says. “Now, we are seeing people move back to India of their own volition. I once thought the U.S. was the only place to be for a technologist, but having come back and seen the changes here, I am not considering going back.”

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