Brain Drain

Short Speech on “Brain Drain”

by Pragati Ghosh

The term “Brain Drain” has come into limelight with the trend of educated and skilled people and workforce moving from one country to another to achieve career gains. The talent of such people as a result becomes available to the nation to which they relocate.

The biggest disadvantage of brain drain is the depletion of talent from the native nation which may badly need their skills and talent. It is the migration of country’s intellect which may have otherwise served their motherland and contributed to its prosperity.

Thus, this brain drain or ‘Human Capital Flight’ as it may be called, becomes a threat to the growth of countries which lose the human resources, rich in technical skills or knowledge. This has also increased the disparity in the economic and social prospects of the countries across the world .The rich and developed nations grow richer and prosperous while the developing or underdeveloped nations stay poorer and backward.

Brain drain is a global phenomenon affecting the developing nations. The disadvantage is seen as an economic cost as a part of the training and the education cost which is sponsored by the government is also taken away with their emigration. Thus the country which experiences the drain of skilled resources faces the getaway of financial capital also.

Brain drain isn’t a problem of this era only. Even in medieval times, the conquerors attacked the nation for gold and other wealth and took people of talent and knowledge with them. This problem became pronounced after Second World War when progressive nations like USA, the erstwhile U.S.S.R. and Germany etc. began to make significant advancements in technology and scientific research attracting talent from foreign nations. Thus men of talent began migrating from less developed nations to these countries.

The reasons of brain drain are many including the lack of opportunity, political instability, health risks and many more. Many students leave their native nations for scientific and technological courses which are not offered by their own country and settle out in the country of study owing to better career opportunities, lucrative remunerations, security of life and health all of which lack in their country of birth.

Also they seek professional satisfaction in the country where they work and thus are ready to continue leaving their own nation. On the top of all this, the bureaucrats of the country fail to realize the potential and the worth of this intellect and thus they are unable to retain the cream of researchers and men with extra-ordinary talent. All these factors combined together trigger the process of brain drain.

Brain drain for the nation from which the emigrants leave to settle into the nation that promises better work opportunities becomes brain gain for the latter. Even countries like Europe were faced with the problem of brain drain until the introduction of green card that helped them gain more brains and compensated for the drained brains.

At present, countries like India, Pakistan and Russia are the sufferers of this problem and losing their talent very rapidly. Unemployment, corrupt political systems, inappropriate and unsafe work and social life as well as poor compensation, prompts the skilled and trained people to leave their own countries and seek promising opportunities in developed nations where they get more success Under utilization of talent, inadequate professional tools, lack of growth and unsatisfactory living conditions are also key factors in the emigration of the skilled workforce from these nations. India loses around 3 percent of her skilled workforce including teachers, doctors, engineers, scientists etc. to developed nations like USA.

Brain drain does more harm than is visible from an outer view. Besides depleting the natural supply of intellectual talent, it reduces the number of dynamic and innovative talent be it the academics or the booming entrepreneurs. The nations that lose the talent in turn have to depend upon foreign assistance for technical purposes.

The technology slowly becomes the onus of the developed nations when they grow richer with more resources contributing to their progress. Even the migration of medical practitioners who are highly trained to other developed nations makes the condition of health care in the native nations miserable. As a result, in case of emergencies and more complex treatments or surgeries, people from such countries have to bear expensive travel and cost of treatment and accommodation in nations that provide these facilities.

As countries lose their talent, its progress slows down and also lacks the contribution of the highly skilled human force, which has left the nation. It leads to a scarcity of skilled resources which then began to charge high for their service to the nation and its countrymen. Poorer nations like Africa suffer the worst from this problem and thus its development remains hindered.

The issue of brain drain is an international phenomenon and an outcome of the trend of globalization, but unlike other benefiting affects of it, brain drain has a negative impact. The problem of brain drain can be effectively tackled. For this, countries suffering from it have to improvise their own socio-economic conditions and provide better salary scales and safe and healthy work conditions to their human capital. Better and updated labs equipped with latest equipment can help retain more scientists and researchers leaving their country owing to lack of research opportunities.

At an international level, the nations which gain these brains should promise to send equivalent talent to the nations losing their human resources. Good governance is also important as they decide the policies that govern the security and standard of living of its people.

As discussed, some brain drain results from the stage of education only when individuals move to other nations offering better educational courses. If these individuals are offered better education opportunities in native countries, the emigration can be controlled at a preliminary level.

Governments need to show commitment to support research while allowing them to carry on their experiments freely with much independence. To conclude there is a need to review the social, political and economic conditions in the nations suffering from phenomenon of brain drain to provide better security and work opportunities to the skilled resources in the native nation.

From- http://www.shareyouressays.com/

Human capital flight or Brain Drain

Human capital flight is an Economics term equivalent to the Sociology term, brain drain, which refers to the emigration of intelligent, well-educated individuals to somewhere for better pay or conditions, causing the place they came from to lose those skilled people, or "brains." Typically, emigrating brains have learned English and move to the United Kingdom, the US or some other English-speaking country. An example is Albert Einstein. Brain drain is common in developing nations, particularly in former African colonies of England, the island nations of the Caribbean and in centralized economies such as the former East Germany and the Soviet Union. China and India have recently been discovered to be at the top of the list of countries with skilled students of English leaving.

Types

There are several types of brain drain:

Organizational: The flight of talented, creative, and highly trained employees from large corporations—e.g. Yahoo, Hub Spot, and Microsoft— that occurs when employees perceive the direction and leadership of the company to be unstable or stagnant, and thus, unable to keep up with their personal and professional ambitions.

Geographical: The flight of highly trained individuals and college graduates from their area of residence, for instance, those migrating from the mid-western United States to the coastal states and large metropolises.^[6]

Industrial: The movement of traditionally skilled workers from one sector of an industry to another. For example, jobs in the United States and other governments, also known as the public sector, have experienced significant generational brain drain as tenure dboomer generation employees retire. Heightened competition for talent from the private sector and budgetary constraints have made it increasingly difficult to attract replacements for these retirees.^[7]

As with other human migration, the social environment is considered to be a key reason for this population shift. In source countries, lack of opportunities, political instability or oppression, economic depression, health risks and more contribute to brain drain, whereas host countries usually offer rich opportunities, political stability and freedom, a developed economy and better living conditions that attract talent. At the individual level, family influences (relatives living overseas, for example), as well as personal preferences, career ambitions and other motivating factors can be considered.

Origins and uses

The term "brain drain" was coined by the Royal Society to describe the emigration of "scientists and technologists" to North America from post-war Europe.^[8] Another source indicates that this term was first used in the United Kingdom to describe the influx of Indian scientists and engineers.^[9] The converse phenomenon is "brain gain", which occurs when there is a large-scale immigration of technically qualified persons. There are also other relevant phrases, "brain circulation" and "brain waste".

Although the term originally referred to technology workers leaving a nation, the meaning has broadened into "the departure of educated or professional people from one country, economic sector, or field for another, usually for better pay or living conditions"

The UNDP estimates that India loses $2 billion a year because of the emigration of computer experts to the U.S.  Indian students going abroad for their higher studies cost India a foreign exchange outflow of $10 billion annually.

(From Wikipedia)

We always come across reports of how much talented Indians are and are conquering the world in the field of technology & business. There are several reports suggesting that Indians dominate the technology industry of USA. 

But why are most of those Indians not in India but in US/UK? If we go a little more in depth to analyze this issue, we will begin to notice that the top Indian professionals & entrepreneurs today in US had actually left India during 1970s & 80s after obtaining their degrees in India. So, Why did we have such a severe brain drain in 1970s and 80s?

One common answer we get is that India did not have the right opportunities for their specialization. Maybe true for technical PhD holders who need employment from research institutes which might not have been prevalent in India. But what about entrepreneurs? They had a market of 0.7 billion people, something that nobody would like to ignore. Instead of going to a foreign land and toiling hard to become entrepreneurs, why did they not remain in India and do the same here? After all, India being a developing nation could have provided them a chance to experiment as well as capture market share.

It is easy to say that they were greedy, did not care for our country and flee to the US for greener pastures. But the real reason lies in the political & economic system.

This snapshot of the 1974 budget might give us some hints. During Indira Gandhi’s rule in 1970s, income tax was at an all-time high with the top slab having a tax rate of 97.75% !!

If you were an entrepreneur and wanted to set up a business (obviously you want to make lots of money), would you be fine with doing business in such an economic condition? After a certain slab, for every profit of Rs 100 you made, you were supposed to part away 98 rs to govt and keep only Rs 2 for yourself. Would there be any incentive for you to work hard after you reach a certain profit level since anything you earn after that will not come to you anyway.

On top of the 97.75% tax, there were several more taxes like wealth tax, inheritance tax etc which when added up would exceed 100%!! It means after a certain slab, if you were making Rs 100, you were supposed to pay around Rs 103 in the form of tax!! Yes. It sounds funny but it was true. Entrepreneurs & businessmen who were making more profits were being “penalized” (in the form of exorbitant taxes) due to such policies.

Top businessmen like JRD Tata were actually selling a part of their wealth because for every Rs 100 they earned, they had to pay Rs 105 in the form of tax. (So, for every Rs 100 earned, they had to sell their existing assets worth Rs 5, add it to the Rs 100 earned and pay this Rs 105 as tax to the Govt).

(From http://guruprasad.net/)

The 'brain drain': How India's education system is failing its economy

My column from last week on the "reverse brain drain" phenomenon, highlighting the recent trend of NRI's returning to India, seemed to hit a particular nerve among Indians and NRI's alike. The article produced strong opinions from all angles.

On one end, NRI's that have not returned to India commented that although they would like to return to India, they could not due to family obligations and higher incomes. On the other hand, Indians lamented at the fact that NRI's left India in the first place. How dare they leave their beloved motherland to seek money in the West?

I, for one, was not particularly surprised at the strong, emotional reactions, but was surprised that one key element was missing from the comments; the fact that the education system in the US is vastly different the one in India.

Last week, I was helping a friend's son, who did his schooling up to higher secondary in Mumbai, in writing his college application essays for entrance into US universities for undergraduate studies.

Now, for those that are unaware, undergraduate studies in the USA is quite costly. Some American universities cost upwards of $40,000 annually i.e. almost Rs. 25 lakh annually. So without a doubt, my friend had clearly thought this decision through. In his mind, sending his son to the US was totally worth the hefty price.

But this brings about a troubling question that looms at large -- what exactly is it that differentiates the education system in the West from that of India?

And, as a follow up, what is the net effect of the "brain drain" on India's economy? What if instead of a "reverse brain drain" India could stop the initial "brain drain" itself?

If India was able to produce an educational system that was comparable to that of the West, students such as my friend's son would think twice before leaving the country. How would this change the picture?

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime"

Speaking from personal experience, having done my schooling exclusively in the West, the easiest way to differentiate the two systems of education is a skills acquiring approach (West) versus a knowledge acquiring approach (India).

At the age of 16, I was introduced to the world of trading and investing through a simple investing competition that our teacher encouraged us to participate in. That simple competition, in return, got me interested in trading and drove me to be become better at it outside of school.

The key element here is that the education system in the West fosters "out of the box thinking". For example, it strongly encourages entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, India has established IIT's, IIM's, law schools and other institutions of excellence; students here now routinely score 90 per cent marks. This makes it difficult for student even with 90+ percentage to get into the colleges of their choice. But the question here is -- what has really changed in the educational system?

That being said, India's educational system has its advantages. It promotes mathematics and sciences, and it is not a coincidence that so many jobs are outsourced to India due to India's education system. Recently, the CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt announced that India's entrepreneurs have the "ability" to build the next Google if India "plays its cards right".

But the fact still remains that students study mainly to score marks in exams, and sometimes to crack exams like IIT-JEE, AIIMS or CLAT. Meanwhile, in the West, teachers encourage their students to acquire skills. Investing for example there is a skill. If my teacher had not encouraged me to participate in that simple stock investing competition, my career might have taken a drastically different route.

India needs to revisit the ways it promotes education. The education system in India is geared towards testing knowledge at every level as opposed to teaching skills. The "teaching a man how to fish" example perfectly illustrates this concept. If I teach a man how to fish, he will continue fishing even after I am long gone. But if I give him a fish to eat and leave, he will not have the skills required to learn how to capture fish in the future. This is not any different than the concept of education.

In India, the best crammers for tests are rewarded. In the West ones who learn skills, and more importantly learn how to apply them are rewarded. Creativity, original thinking, research, and innovation are all cultivated and encouraged from a young age (and the age seems to get younger every year).

All of this leads to one fact, that while students from the West rarely apply to Indian universities for undergraduate studies; Indian parents are willing to fork out 25 lakhs annually in order to get their sons and daughters into the Western education system.

The economic impact of the brain drain

That being said, what is the actual economic impact of the "brain drain" on India? If students did not leave, how would India benefit?

The truth of the matter is that Indian students are rapidly escaping India. In the past decade alone, there has been a 256 per cent increase in the number of students studying abroad. The number now stands at 200,000 annually, and the students are going everywhere - Spain, Britain, Australia, USA, and even China.

The staggering statistic is this one - Indian students studying abroad cost India $17 billion annually in lost revenue. If India was able to replicate the educational system of the US and was able to either prevent its students from leaving, or was able to attract students from other countries, $17 billion would be saved annually.

This column is, no doubt, a generalization: Westerners lament at the fact that India and China routinely score higher on mathematics and science examinations and are actively looking to promote these two subject areas in order to better compete with India and China. But if India wants to prevent the "brain drain" from occurring and keep its brightest students within its borders, it must re-examine the ways it promotes its educational curriculum.

Otherwise, it's just a matter of time before Mandarin is taught to Indians from a young age to prepare them to go to China for their studies.

Raghu Kumar is the co-founder of RKSV, a broking company. The opinions expressed here are the personal opinions of the author. NDTV is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, suitability or validity of any information given here. All information is provided on an as-is basis. The information, facts or opinions appearing on the blog do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.

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