Are Indians trekking back home from USA?

JAN 03 - A large number of overseas doctors, mostly from India, who had flocked to Britain in response to the UK National Health Services� global appeal for more staff, are facing unemployment, poverty and discrimination, a report said on Monday.

More than 6,000 doctors, who passed the Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board (PLAB) test, face months of hardship and many may never obtain jobs and return home penniless, the Independent reported.

The report said many of the doctors flock the Sri Mahalakshmi temple in London everyday to get free food.

WASHINGTON, JAN 1: Is the US, the land of opportunity, really facing a "reverse brain drain" of Indians?

If some media reports are to be believed, Indians in the US are increasingly returning to their home country, attracted by the rising opportunities. However, analysts here differ on how much of such relocation is really taking place.

As for most Indian Americans, reassured by a resurgent American economy combined with a stable personal future, the idea of relocating is far from their minds.

But, for those who came here with temporary visas or find the ideal job long in coming, the galloping Indian economy has opened up another channel of opportunity not available before.

Kanwal Rekhi, the doyen among Indian American entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley, said the trend of Indians trekking back to their homeland "is very real".

"The numbers I am hearing are pretty astounding," Rekhi told IANS. "As much as 100,000 since the bust in 2001."

Of this number, he said some 30,000 to 35,000 were from California's Silicon Valley, the Mecca for Indian IT professionals and entrepreneurs a decade or more ago.

"Bangalore is the new Silicon Valley," Rekhi contends, a city where engineers, entrepreneurs and even venture capitalists are taking their capital -- and themselves.

But economist Anirban Basu, chairman and CEO of Sage Policy Group based near here, said he had seen no data indicating that droves of Indians were leaving the US.

"The trend is not so recognisable. I don't think it's that common. I think it happens in situations where the visa has expired or if there are family reasons," he said.

The 100,000 figure, he said, had to be treated with caution and one would have to subtract from it those who went back because their visas expired or for family reasons.

But Rekhi, who has just returned from India, said: "When I was there I met quite a few people from Silicon Valley."

Bangalore, according to him, has fancy, California-style housing and shopping malls that provide the returnees living conditions mirroring what they left behind in America.

"With lots of opportunities there (India), it means you don't have to do what we had to do - come to the US to find high-end jobs. Those are now becoming available in India," Rekhi maintained.

Moreover, there was the added value of being close to extended family, he said.

"But people who are rooted here like us are not going back," he conceded. If the kids are young and people had come here within the last 10 to 15 years, they were more mobile and prone to relocate, he contended.

Basu agreed that opportunities in India were rising exponentially. "Which is why more and more of young Indians are choosing to stay in India and educate themselves there."

But he added: "I suspect that a better part of Indian Americans have no thought of leaving the American job market. The American job market is very strong. The nation added two million jobs in 2005, most of them white-collar."

Unemployment is at an all time low at five percent nationally, he pointed out.

"And it is much lower than that in the states that have very large Indian American populations -- New Jersey, Washington state, California, Virginia, Maryland."

As for the perceived Silicon Valley "brain drain," Basu said it was possible some relocation was taking place because US multinationals have created hubs in India. But that would merely mean some Indian American employees relocating but still remaining with an American company.

"By and large most (Indian Americans) are quite content to be here. The fact is America remains the land of opportunity and 2006 is predicted to be another year of solid economic expansion in the US," he said. (Source: webindia123)

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