Thursday, February 28, 2008

India Beckons Returnees

India is at it again.

With employment generation and technology advancements in India reaching it's highest ebb, new trend has caught up. It's the trend of reverse brain drain i.e. the "Brain Gain". More than a bagful of overseas Indian's are returning to India to acquire jobs in various technology sectors. Impressive economic growth and over all CAGR of 46% in IT industry over the years has created huge employment opportunities. Many Indians, who earlier headed westwards in search of challenging and rewarding careers, are packing their bags to return to their homeland.

Mr. Anil Kumar E T, Centre Head in Delhi of Mafoi, India's leading recruitment and staffing agency, says that, more than 35, 000 Indian returnees have found attractive employment opportunities over the last three years.

And the trend all set to continue in future years also.

What is making India tick with the already well settled techies at the global level?. Indian IT industry is growing at almost 40% a year and the revenues from software exports and ITES and BPO sectors are expected to touch USD 13 and 5.7 billion respectively in 2005. The industry has undergone a complete overhaul over the years. India today is home to the latest global technologies and Research and Development centres of leading global players like IBM, Microsoft, a far cry from the days of just an outsourcing destination. Off shoring is "in" propelling India up the IT value chain. There is mushrooming of KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing) and ITES sectors. Mr. Shekar Nair, President India Technology Operations NetworkAppliance, says that the exciting entrepreneurial opportunities in the "most happening place" drove his decision to return to India. He feels that at present Bangalore offers more creative challenges for the young than the Bay area (read USA).

Adding fun to the feast, the salaries and facilities for the senior management and senior engineer areas like product engineering, Semiconductor and chip design areas are almost on par with those offered in USA. At junior levels i.e. the 0-5+ experience group the pay scales are less compared to USA. But to counter that India offers a better savings opportunity says a NASSCOM spokes person. There are also common but equally important reasons like cultural ties, familial priorities and security of job which have given a fillip to the whole trend.

Globally more nations are increasingly zeroing on India as a long term partner in their Information Technology plans. African countries are looking at India as a "Big Brother" while developed nations like USA, Germany, Japan, China are looking at India to provide stable, high quality and cost effective IT solutions in various fields like Telecom, defence, product development and application development sectors. This scenario has spurred Indian companies to attain world accredited standards in technology, quality and customer relations management. This quest has naturally increased the demand for returnees, who possess such traits and can contribute in realising the goals of the industry as a whole.

The returnees possess specialised skills in applications, data communication, storage technology and domain specific skills which are in huge demand. Mr. Nair feels that product marketing, customer technical support are the areas where returnees can be hugely productive. Documentation, technical writing and training are some other areas where returnees are in great demand. Ms. Nirupama of TeamLease Services, which has 11 offices across Indian cities, predicts a more wider opportunity areas for the returnees. According to her jobs are available in the following areas:

1. Top management: Functional expert, Client coordination
2. Support services: Documentation, Transcription, Web Designing, Content Management.
3. KPO and BPO environment
4. Data warehousing
5. Networking
6. Trainers

Many returnees are absorbed by the Venture Capital companies as they can easily blend in to the company because inherent experience of working in US companies. They can also make an easy transition in to subsidiary companies which have their parent company in US. Returnees are accommodated at various levels in an organisation like group Leaders, General Manager Levels, client coordinators technical testing, documentation, product development, IT sales, web design, knowledge management, data warehousing and IT infrastructure services.

Mr Jiju George HR manager of Subex Systems feels that companies generally look at returnees for Tech Lead, Project managers, Product Managers, Technical Architect, CEO, COO, Technology Head etc. It is in such crucial positions from where returnees can make real impact to the company with their motivation, vision, goal setting and commitment and inspire other employees of their respective companies to achieve better productivity and quality.

Though overall scene is buoyant for returnees at senior management levels, lower level returnees may not find much favour with the employers. Abundant and highly versatile local talent is still the preferred lot. Even if the returnee is hired the salary may be 30-40% lower than that offered in USA. They have to make do with the lesser quality infrastructure and facilities in India. With all this returnees are "coming". They have realised that, country's tech revolution offers the dual advantage of working in a sophisticated tech environment in a land that's their own.

There is also the softer issue of mother land. As Mr. Nair puts it, "A little goes a long way here.

I am happy even if I can make little positive difference to few individuals." That's for young Indians.

1 comment :

Anonymous said...

Hey nice Blog!!!!!

Hi


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