IndiaPost.com - Returning top Indians enrich India's R&D

NEW YORK/ NEW DELHI: Not only are more and more top Indian brains in the US returning to India, they are bringing in top R&D which is enriching vital sectors in India.

The Indus Entrepreneur Group (TIE) estimates that around 60,000 infotech professionals may have returned in recent years. No region of the United States has been more affected by this trend than Silicon Valley. TIE had reported in 2003 that between 15,000 and 20,000 Indians have returned and Charter member of the organization Vish Mishra told San Jose Mercury News that the trend had continued and about 40,000 more had gone back in the last four years.

A growing number of top automotive engineers, are reversing the brain drain, and driving straight India's automotive industry. Business Standard quoted the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) as saying there are already over 250 Indian expatriates who have returned to work on R&D in domestic automobile companies Mahindra & Mahindra, Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors and Hindustan Motors.

SIAM predicts that their numbers will double in two years. Arun Jaura helped the Ford Motor Company launch its popular hybrid car Excape as part of its crack research and development (R&D) team. But after working for nine years in Ford's Michigan R&D centre, Jaura packed his bags and came to India to join Mahindra & Mahindra two years ago. His job: to launch the country's first bio-diesel vehicle under the Scorpio brand and a Mahindra tractor.

With two patents and over 26 research papers under his belt, the vice-president of Mahindra & Mahindra's R&D is now working on a combined battery and diesel sports utility vehicle (SUV). "The rich experience gained in the developed world helps in avoiding the mistakes the US and the European Union made and could turn India into a 'Brains Trust of Asia'," Jaura said. Arvind S Bharatwaj took a 50 per cent cut in his salary in General Motors in the US to return to India and now heads the advanced engineering unit of Chennai-based Ashok Leyland.

TIE had reported in 2003 that between 15,000 and 20,000 Indians have returned and Charter member of the organization Vish Mishra told San Jose Mercury News that the trend had continued and about 40,000 more had gone back in the last four years. Mishra, who is a senior venture partner with Clearstone Ventures, said the flow of investment capital to India also has expanded, much of it from Silicon Valley VC firms. Clearstone Venture Partners now has an office in Mumbai, as do many other firms that either are based in or originated in Silicon Valley.

During the 12-month period that ended in August 2006, Mishra told the paper, VC firms invested 2 billion dollars in early and late-stage companies. The report quotes a study released earlier this year by Anna-Lee Saxenian of the University of California-Berkeley and by Duke University, as saying Indians founded 15 per cent of all Silicon Valley start-ups. The Mercury News says there isn't a single major information-technology company in the United States that hasn't set up operations in India.