Asian countries often complain about brain drain that many skilled and bright highly educated professionals and graduates from Asia are going to Europe and America and Asian countries are being deprived of their service. This has happened for India in the last 2 decades as thousands of Indian highly skilled technology professionals have gone to USA and contributed in the development of US tech industry. USA is still trying to import more Indian workers and after the quota of H1B visa is increased in the next few weeks, from next year many Indian tech workers will again go to USA. What is interesting now is that Indian companies are looking for recruiting US workers.
I found an interesting article in Boston.com with the title, 'India tech firms seek US talent in offshoring twist' in which Diane E. Lewis has talked about the efforts of Indian tech giants like Infosys Technologies Ltd. and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. for hiring skilled professionals from USA and the rest of the world. I am quoting from the article:
"Infosys Technologies Ltd., a leading Indian software provider, will spend $100 million over the next year to hire and train 25,000 workers and college graduates culled from around the world, including from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. of Bangalore will add 30,500 employees over the next year, including 1,000 from the United States."
In this article I could find the figure of 10,000 American expats working in India and this figure was given by John McCarthy, vice president of Asia Pacific research at Forrester Research in Cambridge.
I have just one thing to wonder- how Indian companies can afford US workers. After all, it was the cheap salary of Indian workers that made India the most atttrctive destination in outsourcing in the first place. Of course, living expense in India is much cheaper than USA and secondly Indian companies are not recruiting US workers in large numbers. So, they can easily afford to pay some Americans higher salary while they are still getting works done with their Indian workers at a cheap salary. If more Americans work in companies like like Infosys Technologies Ltd. and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. then it will help them to get more outsourcing works from the west.
I guess that this new trend will make some people in USA unhappy as it is going to start a new wave of brain drain from the West to the East. I will not be surpised if India starts something similar to H1B visa for foreign skilled workers as sooner rather than later India is going to face shortage of highly skilled workers.
What is your idea about this matter?
Is it true? This sounds really amazing. India bringing in American workers. I think there are some causes behind this. If the main cause is bring more works from USA to India then it is ok.
Posted by: S.M.Mehdi Hassan | May 30, 2006 9:03 AM | Permalink to Comment