Indian scientists returning home: Study

After decades of “brain drain”, Indian scientists have started returning following a their tenures at foreign university, which help them in improving their skills and made them better researchers, suggests a new analysis.

The analysis used publication data from Scopus, one of the largest scientific publication databases from the Elsevier group that publishes scientific journals, to suggest a marginal increase (0.6 per cent) in the number of Indian scientists returning to India, compared to those who leave in search of a better future in the last 15 years.

It suggests that close to 64 per cent of Indian scientists who stay back in India are not very productive, when compared with 23 per cent visiting researchers who went out for better training and higher studies. But the most productive are those who permanently return to India after spending a few years at foreign universities.

  “India has become a land of opportunity with new Indian Institutes of Science, Education and Research, Indian Institutes of Technologies and central universities coming up.

The industry too is looking for fresh Ph.Ds,” R A Mashelkar, former director general of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, who is not connected to the Elsevier analysis told Deccan Herald.  Mashelkar said in the last ten years, critical scientific infrastructure and openings were created to absorb young researchers.

“Earlier there was hardly any scope in universities or institutions unless someone died or retired,” he said. “As India shows a net inflow of scientists, a case can be made for an Indian ‘brain gain’ rather than the commonly believed ‘brain drain’,” said Michiel Kolman, senior vice-president at Elsevier, who released the results at the 100th session of the Indian Science Congress at Kolkata earlier this month.

The analysis showed incoming scientists (6.6 per cent of the total number of scientists studied) are the most productive whereas visiting scientists (23.4 per cent) are almost as productive. But the outgoing flock (6 per cent) and those staying back are below average.

“A majority of good Ph.D students in biological sciences are not finding their way back either due to lack of an opportunity or due to lack of enthusiasm. Most average PhDs stayed back for lack of opportunities overseas and managed to get jobs in some mediocre research institute,” said Sudhanshu Vrati, professor and dean at the Translational Health Sciences and Technology Institute, Gurgaon, who too is not linked to the analysis.

“The 6.6 per cent incoming scientists could be a biased sample. Those who went abroad, did research and published papers may be coming back in large numbers either due to altruistic motivation or simply due to visa restrictions.

Their productivity may not be sustained for too long. That needs to be examined before generalisations are made,” said T Jacob John, a former professor at Christian Medical College, Vellore.