World wants Indians as India wants them more
Recent dispatch of The Economist highlights the global hunt among countries competing fiercely to attract and retain talent, not homegrown but foreign. The global fight for foreign intellectual capital is soaring new trajectories hitherto unparalleled. A Harvard study estimates that immigrant population in America, which is 14 per cent, is responsible for 34 per cent of innovations in the US.
Policy catalysts are working overnight to entice the best and the brightest as cerebral mobility finds its natural way with rich countries preferring richer talent than asylum-seekers. At a time when Prime Minister Modi’s clarion call for Viksit Bharat @2047 is getting amplified by the day, the time has come to also understand the benefit of reversing the path of the comity of India’s global intellectual capital.
With 4.2 billion natives holding their ballots as their countries face elections this year roughening the contours of talent mobility, the effect of international student returnees to societal development of home country assumes significant importance for BRIC nations and is very special for India.
Considering the hyper-mobility of the world’s smartest, India loses 36 per cent of its top 1,000 rankers who graduate from premier IITs. Migration is not lonely at the conical top but is cylindrically inflated from top to bottom with India’s growth rate in world’s international student enrolment outgrowing China for 2022-23 with China still being the largest contributor to international student enrolment in absolute value.
The effect of returning international students to India shall not only progressively impact Viksit Bharat but also relatively displace intellectual capital in host countries. The Economist article quotes the Harvard study that estimates immigrant exodus to reduce co-worker productivity twice as much as native loss, meaning that not only does returning international talent enhance home country development but also handicap existing competitive advantage of foreign nations. In the context of India’s huge talent pool, there is more to ponder for policy makers.
A research study systematically mapping and thematically synthesising the impact of returning international students on home country development was done by three academics from British universities—Oxford, Edinburgh and Hertfordshire. This study was funded by the US Department of State and was published in March 2024. The study reviewed journal articles during the period 1960 to 2022 comprising 1,515 articles (from which 53 were extracted after detailed analysis) that studied this impact examining 26 home countries and 74 host countries.
The study published in Science Direct’s International Journal for Educational Research indicates five key areas of development that international student returnees have contributed significantly. All five are cornerstones of Viksit Bharat @2047: Firm Development, Social Transformation, Higher Education and Research, Political Culture and Economic Growth.
Firm development has been impacted through technology spill-overs, business management expertise, investment and innovation opportunities, etc. that returning natives brought with them. Social transformation has been through promoting equitable and inclusive societies, healthcare and rural development, empowering the marginalised and other social capital enrichers that the returnees were endowed with.
Higher education and research also received significant benefits through research collaborations, infusion of best practices, knowledge transfer, curriculum design and development besides institutional leadership building. Understandably, Political Culture and Economic Growth had its own share of impact but not as pronounced as the other three highlighting each country’s unique politics of economics and the economics of politics.
The entire study doesn’t conclude emphatically demonstrating global scale evidence between international student returnees and home country’s societal development, as only limited countries were studied. Importantly, China was studied and has benefitted, and by mere extrapolation in terms of size, India stands to benefit a lot if the study had included India and its returning Indians.
The study, however, has adequate evidence to conclude that transformations in individual returnees developed new perspectives and insights on societies and motivated individuals to contribute to their home countries as it did remarkably in the case of China, Taiwan, etc.
Returning international Indians are powerful agents of change provided there is change in local factor conditions and policy making. While firm strategy and social transformation may find its organic re-route map, systemic issues covering higher education and research requires far-reaching policy turnaround to attract globally mobile Indian talent at a time when there is global competition to retain them in all parts other than India.
When the world wants Indian talent, India needs them more. Coherent synergy between the dyad vectors, home-grown and international returnees, requires a far expansive thought process in policy making. It is time now to be thought generous in policy to achieve Viksit Bharat @ 2047.
S Vaidhyasubramaniam
Vice-Chancellor, SASTRA Deemed University
vaidhya@sastra.edu