To think of it, India has become the outsourcing hub of the world, where all international companies are also setting shop. But this outsourcing has also meant that the talented bunch of students, who cannot find good job opportunities in India have to travel abroad in search of better job profiles. More than 25 per cent of the medical staff in America and the Britain consists of doctors, who attended medical school elsewhere. These are the same students who got trained in India, Pakistan or China and have now moved abroad for better opportunities. In the year 2008, maximum students going to the United States of America in order to study were from India. Most of these students, after finishing their education, get recruited and more often than not settle abroad.

A report by the World Bank had placed India third in terms of brain drain, even ahead of China and Germany. The first two slots were taken up by Britain and Philippines. Even though the numbers represent more than a million, the percentage of Indian immigrants to foreign countries represents just five per cent of the total graduate population. When we compare this to some of the African and central American countries, it is still a low figure. Almost 47 per cent of the student population of Ghana goes abroad, whereas 89 per cent of the student population of Guyana go abroad. Well, this just can’t be called brain drain, this is brain haemorrhage.

But still brain drain continues to be a cause of concern for India, for we are getting used to thousands of students going abroad every year for education. Former Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam had said that reverse brain drain will have to begin if India is to become a developed nation in the future. But the percentage of students coming back after studying overseas is not very high and hence efforts will have to be made to reduce the number of students going out in the first place. For this, we will have to revamp our education system and also include more higher education institutions in the country so that students do not have to look for alternatives elsewhere. The migration of students might have helped in ’brand India’ becoming more powerful, but the image of India needs to change in the future. We shouldn’t just be a country that produces great talent, but also the one that nurtures and builds on it. Every Indian is proud of the fact that he is an Indian, but we will have to wait for the day till he is proud of being in India.