Booming India lures foreign returnees

By agencies   |   Thursday, 29 December 2005, 20:30 IST
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BANGALORE: It's literally the return of India's prodigal sons as a number of technology professionals leave their foreign jobs and head home, lured by a booming India. While most returnees are first-generation expatriates, second-generation Indians living in the U.S. are also returning, said Lori Blackman, a recruitment consultant in Dallas. She said, “Among them I sense an altruistic pull to return to India to help build their home country to a greater power than the country had ever hoped to achieve.” But the trend is raising fears among the U.S. specialists that it could deplete the country of scientific talent and blunt its edge in innovation, Blackman added. For many returnees, the newly challenging work environment in India has tied in neatly with personal reasons for returning, such as raising their children in Indian culture and caring for aging parents. "When I left India 25 years ago, everybody was headed to the US," said Kela, who pursued a Ph.D. at the University of Rochester and stayed two decades, working for companies like General Electric and AutoDesk. For India's best and brightest, a technology or engineering career was an irresistible draw to the U.S., even until four or five years ago. "But now they all want to get on the plane home," said Kela, who returned with his wife and two children. Once a regular at Silicon Valley job fairs, trying to woo Indians back home, Kela no longer needs to sell India. He receives 10 resumes a month from people with decades of work experience in the U.S. yearning to relocate. With globalization, many Americans of Indian origin in the high-technology industry are looking at India as a "career-enhancing move," said Anuradha Parthasarathy, the Chief Executive of Global Executive Talent, a hiring firm.