From: amit@canon.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Amit Gupta)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: IIT's and REC's. Training factories for US? (was: NRI's returning to India
Date: 29 Sep 1992 05:47:22 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: canon.cs.berkeley.edu

In article <1992Sep29.011332.113632@ua1ix.ua.edu>, ngopalas@ha05.eng.ua.edu () writes:

 [ D E L E T E D ]
     
|> the IIT's and REC's were set up to train guys for the US industry] Compare     
|> this situation to the doctors who are also educated at taxpayer expense. They   
|> are required to work for five years in rural areas before they set up practice 
|> (mint money]) in cities. Similarly before engineers embark on the dollar hunt  
|> they should be made to work for a certain period of time in India. At the      
|> very least they should be made to pay back whatever the Govt has spent on their
|> education. A few thousand dollars will hardly make a difference in the pocket   
|> of the professionals here. If people are not willing to go back then they should
|> at least reimburse India for whatever she has spent on them. Sound reasonable? 

No, it doesnt.

A minor correction first: Regarding the doctors, the Govt *can* ask them to work in
rural areas for 2 years. I dont know how often this happens in practice (no pun in-
-tended) but my sis is a doctor; she never worked in any rural area.

The important point: Before the decision-makers legislate, they should look at the 
consequences of the legislation. Is the current situation *very* bad? It is quite
 debatable. Many IIT (and REC) graduates have gone back, and contributed to the
Indian economy. Many stay in touch with the researchers back home, and help them in
many different ways. Plus, the overall contribution to the world economy also helps
the Indian economy (e.g. let us assume, hypothetically, that all the computers were
made by graduates of Indian schools. Clearly, the (use of) computers helps the 
Indian economy.)

Secondly, look at the possible laws 

1. Ban all technical graduates from ever studying/working abroad.

 Absurd; likely to be struck down by the Supreme Court.
 IIMs are swamped by IIT /REC graduates. (Is that that bad?)

2. All technical grads should work/study in India for 2/5 years before they can
   work/study abroad.

 The post-grad programs are filled with students studying for GRE; the technical
 graduates take stop-gap employment, and leave at the "release date"; this further
 worsens the situation (2/5 years of training wasted).

|>                                                                                
|> I myself am from IIT and know that the Govt spends nearly 2 lakhs on every     
|> BTech product. It's high time we stopped free-loading on the system and paid    
|> something back. I would like some honest opinions instead of rationalizations. 
|>                                                                                
|> Nath.                                                                          

So am I. I am not convinced that we can legislate our way out of the current 
situation. I am not the one to insist that the technical graduates be given the
largest salaries, but at the current salary levels, vis-a-vis the other profess-
-ions, it is unlikely that many graduates will be happy to "stay technical" in the
Indian industry.

-amit

ps: I am *not* saying that 

 a. the current situation is *very good* for India.
 b. legislation will *not* reduce the "brain-drain".
Xref: sparky soc.culture.indian:32961 soc.history:8783