Reverse brain drain is a new wave phenomenon; it is ephemeral in nature.

In the next five years you can see global responsibility being handled completely from India.

When you have opportunity in your country, why work elsewhere?

If I say I came back for the culture, I am grossly misrepresenting myself.

The ‘right’ thing to do for the company and for the customers is usually the same across the globe.

If you thought, even for a second, these quotes were a compilation from the gurus of management or a chauvinist, you got it wrong. And for some literary buffs it might sound like one of those Aldous Huxley’s or even Nostradamus’ predictions, but truly and modestly this was something we were offered when siliconindia conducted a relocation-cum-career research among a coterie who came down with the same intentions, but different aspirations.

Reverse brain drain is happening, like it did for a decade, but it seems that the older the term the richer its meaning. Influx of expatriates is freshening up every year and is attributed to the growing economy and outsourcing market in India. The interest to beat a route home is matched by U.S. firms’ keenness to move jobs overseas—especially to India. Multinationals including big names such as Microsoft, Intel and Oracle Corporation are actively scouting for talent to manage their offices in India. In most U.S. firms there are enough Indians in the higher echelons to drive an interest in India.

According to a recent siliconindia survey of Indian American executives in the U.S corporations, 60 percent said that they are actively looking into opportunities for retuning back to India. Anna Lee Saxenian, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley finds nearly three-fourths of the predominantly Indian and Chinese immigrants interviewed said they knew between one and 10 immigrant professionals who had returned home. For many, it is a wonderful opportunity for career advancement and being a part of exciting economic times in India and also the economic history of the world.

The quality of life in India is much better than before, and jobs too have become better, both in terms of material benefits and professional challenges, says Kiran Karnik, chairman of India’s biggest IT industry lobby, the National Association of Software Services Companies.

Most of the migrating Indians are citizens of their respective countries they are choosing to leave, and are the higher management employees with atleast 15 to 20 years of work experience. Today, they are back on native soil, grappling jobs to suit their taste and type, and also in the process of making the Indian work scenario similar in fashion of their foreign counterpart.

Environs changed…or exchanged?
Like a high-speed cartwheel with cracks and cuts—population, unemployment and coalition government—India is revolving with reforms. People who had made haste to leave are making it again to come back, not for the true love of country though, but for its slew of opportunities and foreign money, flowing unrestrainedly. Multinational companies which once raised eyebrows evoke no surprise today, Indian tier1 cities are all geared to service the software industry of the world. Like someone said, India is the electronic warehouse of the world with its blooming BPO industries.

Alongside BPO is the now-emerging technology development in India: what was until recently a trickle is today gushing out, beckoning technologists all over the world to look at what promises to be a potential habitat. India’s technology diaspora is tracing out trail to travel back that had once led them front.

Global Indians coming back home is increasing year-by-year and a recent survey indicated that over 35,000 Indian IT workers returned to their native soil since 9/11—almost 10 percent of the current Indian IT workforce in the U.S. What attracts the well settled to move to another volatile land? Firstly, there is always a sense of comfort moving to your own country at the cost of nothing, but the profit of everything. Secondly, the work condition will have no compromise; you can do any technology-related research in India and still make space in the global IT map.

Isn’t America better off? Today, multitude of multinationals are establishing base in India and its not only services and back office work happening here, but also technology-building on a large scale. State-of-art infrastructure exists in all MNCs and start-ups, giving a jumpstart to their businesses, accumulating foreign talent and blending them with engineering folks in India, say returnees. India is the place where there is action. The U.S. market is becoming too very management-oriented, says Jayram Srinivasan of Symphony. Concurs Sriram Sethuraman of Ittiam, who moved from Sarnoff Corporation to a start-up, as he saw the right technology being developed at the right place. Working in the U.S. doesn’t give you a global perspective, says Manish Sinha of Microsoft, who moved out of the U.S to Singapore and now to India to gain that “global perspective.”

“Work culture in India has changed tremendously; the tide in India to go abroad for better prospects is wearing off, as India itself is a preferred destination worldwide. There is a perceptible positive drift in the inquisitive attitude of the technology workforce all over the country. And supplementing all these there is right infrastructure and work environment to develop the cutting edge technology,” says Bhavin Sheth of BEA Systems. Now people are more interactive—they stop you and question about technology nuances. Ricky Bedi of Magma Designs agrees. There is change in today’s mindset; management is providing training sessions for its employees in project presentation to boost their overall confident level, which is something urgently required in Indian work climate. However, Sinha thinks that the corporate culture and the local country culture are very important aspects in how an individual works.

In India it’s not just the technology but also people management, which adds value to your work. “If you know the product you are dealing with and also the clients you are going to handle, then it’s an advantage,” says Satya Simha of Analog Devices. Madan Nagaldinne, head of human resources at Tavant Technology has a different opinion—he believes there should be a true blending in work environment. When an Indian manager with a deep understanding of people and technology management works with a returnee-cum-Program Manager who also has an equal understanding of technology and customer management, then there is a homogenous blending, and the outcome will be Program Managers who can manage people, technology and customers.But the ultimate problem common to all HRs and the company heads is how to recruit a professional who is an expert in his chosen area, while also being equipped with the multi-tasking capabilities. Besides, of course, the right attitude to adjust in India?

The Recruit
Selecting the candidate to suit the companies’ definition of adept is a task tangled with esotericism, ingenuity and experience; with all these three attributes, one has to start with having a global outlook. Since the influx of returnees is emphatic, there should always be parameters to delicately distinguish returnees’ nuances in homecoming.

Senior management looks for things like it was in the U.S. or any other country they just vacated. Though the family and kids were one of the reasons for leaving their resident countries, primary was for the new wave of technology in India. “And remember, the seniors are those people settled in other countries, especially the U.S., for almost two decades now and their thoughts about India will be in direct proportionality to their years of foreign stay,” opine the HR managers.

Indians moving back can be hierarchically classified into three: senior management, middle management and junior level. To start off, the senior people already have a clear mindset about their new place of work—cutting edge technology that is being done out of India. What was once just a back office service centre for big MNCs’is wearing thin and India is no more a land of low cost labor, but a pool of ever-updating talent. Headhunters always track returnees, especially the seniors, because of the knowledge base acquired by a returnee is worth big sums to run any businesses. As a high-ranked official in one or two specific domains, he can comfortably adjust to any kind of a senior position here due to their better knowing and understanding of work culture on a global field.
Nagaldinne explains, “If you break down the foreign talent into technical talent, business & business applications talent, then its apparent that the technically talented people who have worked very close in customer scenarios understand customer expectations very well. So foreign talent helps, and they adapt very quickly.”

The advantages of recruiting senior level talent would be that, “the ramp-up time of your team is shorter. Your credibility in front of your customers goes up since all your senior people are from the U.S., and the work environment will match that of the U.S., added to now strong operations strengths. And also, a senior person will not only have expertise in his chosen field but considerable amount of customer managing credits,” says Anand Anandkumar, MD of Magma Designs.

Hitherto it has been a cakewalk to the recruitment heads in handling a senior guy, but it’s always been a catcall experience for them while employing people of middle management and junior level. “You really won’t know who is serious and who is not about coming back to India. The recruitment process takes nearly four to six months on an average, but the skepticism of knowing whether the candidate is serious will haunt you atleast for the first two months in the initial stage. However, if the person continues to talk about a six-months term he would be closer to the seriousness we seek, than the one-month guy,” believes Karthik S, Managing Director of Analog Devices, India. To break this cumbersome criterion, some companies have opted for the most oldest and still surviving tool in the industry—bonds.

Bond is one thing which we don’t indulge in and get our hands dirty, says Nagaldinne. “If the recruit—despite our screening, performance culture and the promises during selection—opts to leave our company, we attribute that to our poor socialization engagements. But, Magma Designs play safe in this context; we do have a one-year contract, this is to get even with the relocation charges, which is invested. It would cost around $16000 for a family to relocate from California to Bangalore for instance, says Anandkumar.

Sharad Sharma, head of Veritas (R & D), sees the middle management and junior level employees in a different light. Accordingly, “there is stagnation in the middle management in the U.S., which shows that the industry is not growing rapidly. If they really want professional growth and good opportunity they should turn to India.” Also the “scarcity principle”—for an Indian to climb the corporate ladder in the U.S.—would be at the cost of another corporate head; unlike in India, where the growth of companies has been prolific in the recent past and an individual’s growth opportunity is quite well-defined. The interesting dynamics he sees is that the center of gravity in the IT industry is perhaps shifting. And this is clearly an advantage for the junior level employees, says he.

All about the money is not true
...neither is that of the fast-growth; relocation doesn’t gel with paper cash nor higher-level positions any more,” claim the recruiters. Gone are the days when the returnees banked upon their rich work experience, bubbly environment building potentials and so on to garner some good deals and positions. Today the treatment is similar to any other Indian of the same position in the company, but no more, opine the HR managers and company heads.

What is it then that is beckoning this talent back and creating this reverse brain drain scenario? Technology. Cutting edge technology being developed here, which was previously bounded by the skeptical minds of information dissemination leakage by America and other western European countries, is now prolific in India, say all home-comers. Ricky Bedi of Magma design explains, “Innovations are happening out of here. Complex chip design too can be handled out of India. In fact, at Magma India we design software for 90nm and 60nm chip design, which was unbelievable a few years back.”

Importantly, the commotion surrounding the remuneration is neatly judged, divided and distributed. Although returnees’ salaries suit their profile, the numbers are more in keeping with Indian scales. “The opening up of Indian markets has resulted in availability of the same goods and services one is used to in the U.S at an affordable price. The cost of these goods or services as a percentage of one’s salary is much higher in India compared to the U.S.,” says Sheth. “It’s all in the returnees game,” concur returnees. Till a certain point in time money really matters, but later on it is not a factor, but your family and technology (obviously) is, adds Srinivasan.

Pawan Kumar of Veritas thinks, “Salary earned in India is comfortable and suitable to an Indian standard of lifestyle. If you don’t want to go back to the U.S., then the amount you save is pretty good. According to my calculation and expectations, if my expenses and savings in the U.S. were 50:50, here it might be 40:60.” However, Anand Kumar and Bedi of Magma raised an eyebrow at the Indian cost of living, especially in the metros, which compete with the U.S. standards.

As for the growth that was once faster for foreign returnees, it is today a matter mostly forgotten. You return, you get placed, but it may be or may not be something of the same standard. There are people who have traded their growth—too quickly, sometimes—for the reasons they have had to repent for sometime further in life. For example, Navarthna Murthy managed worldwide testing teams in his previous portfolio. Now in McAfee in India, he is a senior manager in charged of his division, but his valid reason is that his son was 10-years old, and so he had to rush up or else it could have been a window lost for a well-timed relocation.

Most of the returnees interviewed were in higher positions than what they were in the U.S. In India, technology and management is never one, but different entities altogether, says Sateesh Venkeepuram of Veritas. If you want to grow on the management side you will have to stick to it, unlike in the U.S where both go hand in hand. Pradeep Jankiraman of Tavant agrees, “I am on the technology side but my intentions are also to grow in management.”

“If you ignore smaller issues, the overall quality of life is better in India. If you are here with family and relatives, then you can depend on them whenever required,” believes Venkeepuram. However, nowadays all the concerns troubling people relocating are answered by the active involvement of the management and HR department. They just don’t promote the company but they also act as salesmen in selling relocation (HR) and selling the company to suit the returnees, or rather employees, and also the company’s criteria.

Homesick: Which one?
Fifteen to twenty years is probably one quarter of a human being’s average life span, if you have spent that in a country—that too during your early adulthood—and looking to come back to another, then you are surely in one of those carrefours unable to find solace. This is exactly what happened to most of the returnees as they left their citizenship-acquired country to move to their home country.

“I had relatives in India but not many friends, I felt awfully homesick when I moved back,” says Venkeepuram. “However, I thought it would be good to give a taste of what I went through in culture, education and upbringing to my sons.”

Simha too misses his friends, and so do his kids, but things like Internet and IP phones have added value in life, making keeping in touch simpler. Traveling and partying is what Srinivasan misses the most; the young bachelor and cricket fan groans about the traffic in India.

“Socializing there [in the U.S.] was easier and simpler—we happened to meet the cricket stars of the world like Sachin Tendulkar, Vasim Akhram and Shoiab Akhtar—because we were always the minority and so easily identifiable, but here its just you and your friends.”

Initially, apartments were unanimous choices for the returnees, but now it’s drifting towards the villas built specifically for the NRIs in the suburban fringes.


Kids: here, there and all around
It is 6:30 in the morning in Pune, and a four-year old kid from the neighborhood is knocking Pawan Kumar’s door, wanting his daughter to come out. He is happy seeing his daughter being so active and socializing. When he came down to India from Sunnyvale, one of his wishes was for probably this informal sense of camaraderie for his daughter. Most of the families who have relocated to India are rejoicing over their cultural and technological advantage. “Out in the U.S., it was too materialistic and kids didn’t even know who their neighbors were,” is a groan quite often heard from returnees.

Has this kind of transition happened with all the kids who came down from different countries, or rather their country to India? You can see all the parents, interviewed for this article, nodding their head in unison and answering with a resonating ‘yes’. “Even though parents struggle, it’s the kids who get acclimatized fast,” says Simha. Simha’s kids are slightly older—six and nine—and their response towards the changed environment has been inquisitive—they ask questions about everything around. They have access to emails and sometime they get low after talking with their friends back in the U.S.

“Adjustment is a frame of mind and not a function of mind,” remarks Anand of Magma Designs. When a family relocates, the process of transition is tedious; accommodation, schooling, interests et al change with time and place. “When you decide to come down here, you know the risk you are taking in terms of everything,” says Murthy, “especially when you are coming after 15 years or so, then you should mentally prepare yourself. To many, apart from the family, the entire country is almost foriegn.”

Schools are not a problem at all, say all parents. Today there are schools of different nationality—American, Britain, Canadian and so on. These international schools also follow American academic calendars and offer a choice of languages —French and Spanish included. Since the schools are good, parents have no concern about social hygiene and the health of their young ones. Ricky Bedi of Magma Designs moved to India a couple of months ago, so did Simha, Sinha, Venkeepuram, Kumar and others with the primary concern of kids and family. At that time, almost all of them had young kids, and they all realized that in five years into time, this relocation would have been a move too late. Or has this been one in haste?

You—the reader—make your call.