SANJAYOVACHA | ‘Brain Drain’ Gets Support of Govt with New Initiative

There was a time when Indian policymakers and planners worried about the phenomenon that is known as the “brain drain” -- the emigration of talented and skilled Indians. Eminent economists like Jagdish Bhagwati and V.M. Dandekar explored ways to discourage, if not stop, it. For decades now Indians have gone overseas, on their own accord, in search of employment and a better life. We are now in an era when the Union government has decided to actively promote the export of Indian talent and skills, perhaps because the Indian economy is unable to make use of them at home.

None less than India’s external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar recently extended his official imprimatur to a private sector initiative to “position India as a global talent hub to address international labour shortages”. This is the mission of the GATI Foundation (www.gatifoundation.org), that the external affairs minister launched recently. Surprisingly, there was little attention paid to this in the media, perhaps because working class and middle-class Indians have come to view overseas opportunities as a welcome exit route from Bharat’s “Amrit Kaal”. Till now most were seeking these opportunities on their own, now private sector Good Samaritans and the government are offering to facilitate such export. So, why not?

In Sanskrit, “gati” means motion, movement or progress. In Telugu it also implies fate. The fate of talented Indians is to quickly move out, with speed, and seek progress by emigrating. In his remarks at the launch of GATI, the external affairs minister summed up his lengthy speech stating: “My short point is that there is a demand in the world, an availability in India and the basic groundwork done to enable Indian talent to gain global access is there.” The government, he assured, will do its bit.

This column draws on my recently published book, Secession of the Successful: The Flight Out of New India (Penguin Random House, 2025), where I explore the changing nature of emigration from India and how earlier concerns about “brain drain” no longer seem to worry the Indian political leadership and the public policy world. In fact, GATI’s team leader, Manish Sabharwal, even declared in a newspaper column sometime back: “Brain drain is better than brain in drain”.

The world is hiring both skilled and unskilled labour from India. Talented professionals are, after all, skilled labourers. Knowledge workers, as they are often referred to. From software professionals in the United States to construction workers in West Asia and Israel, from industrial manpower in Taiwan to mercenary soldiers on the Ukraine war front, Indians are in demand.

A large part of the migration labour market is informal and ill-organised. There is a global demographic transition and the ageing societies of developed economies have little option other than to import skilled and semi-skilled professionals and workers from an India whose population is still growing and whose citizens are willing to emigrate in search of better life. Over time, government agencies and corporations have also stepped in to facilitate talent export.

Unemployed youth willing to go to distant lands in search of employment is a natural and understandable phenomenon. But the desperation of such youth is palpable when they are willing to work in conflict zones. The recent surge in legal labour migration to Israel, a nation at war, is thanks to an agreement entered into between the governments of India and Israel, points to increasing government intervention in the emigration of working-class Indians. Having thrown Muslim Palestinian workers out of jobs in Israel, after the terror attacks in October 2023, the Benjamin Netanyahu government in Israel reached out to India seeking export of “Hindu” labourers. The state governments of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh were quick to respond, asking eligible men to register themselves for work in Israel at employment centres opened in Rohtak and Lucknow.

The desperation of the Indian working class willing to seek work in a war-ravaged region was echoed by a worker in Rohtak, who told a Reuters reporter: “If it’s in our destiny to die, then we can die either here or there. My hope is that we will go and do good work and spend some time and come back.” Israel is seeking masons, painters, electricians, plumbers and farmer labour. Vivek Sharma, a 28-year-old mason, was quoted by Reuters saying: “Yes, I am aware of the conflict, but I can earn a lot of money in a short time.” Sharma hoped to earn in a year $12,000, and added: “It could take me at least five years to earn the same amount of money in India.” Wage differentials have been at the heart of Indian labour export for several decades now.

The father of a young man killed on the war front in Ukraine, hailing from the developed Indian state of Gujarat, summed up this desperation. Hemil Mangukiya, 23, joined the Russian Army and was killed at Donetsk on the Russia-Ukraine border. His father, Ashvinbhai Mangukiya, told an Indian newspaper: “What is there in India? We are ready to move to Russia if everything falls in place. I am ready to give up Indian citizenship.”

How different does this motivation to cross the seas sound from those of the many indentured labourers who escaped from deprivation at home to enter into slavery overseas? Sure, the colonial government connived in the indenture system and today’s democratic government of a sovereign state does not. Rather, the State seeks to offer protection from such exploitation. But the motivation of the unemployed to migrate in search of a better life is an enduring one.

Soon after Israel indicated an interest in importing Indian labour, Taiwan too began negotiating with Indian government representatives. Taiwan’s Premier Chen Chien-jen and India Taipei Association’s director-general Manharsinh Laxmanbhai Yadav signed a memorandum of understanding to facilitate labour mobility. Taiwan is willing to provide employment for 100,000 Indians at wage rates comparable to what local workers are paid. Taiwan is reportedly looking to hire imported workers in the manufacturing sector as well as on construction projects, agricultural and fish farms and as household workers. GATI and the government will now help meet such demand.