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Is India`s brain-drain coming home?: The Times of India
Washington, July 09: India`s brain drain is coming around a full circle. In an event unthinkable a decade ago, American companies, including Microsoft and Intel, will participate in job fairs in the United States later this month to recruit tech heads for their India operations.
Washington, July 09: India's brain drain is coming around a full circle. In an event unthinkable a decade ago, American companies, including Microsoft and Intel, will participate in job fairs in the United States later this month to recruit tech heads for their India operations.
The first of the India-specific "career fairs" is being held July 17 in the heart of California's Silicon Valley -- at the Hilton in Santa Clara, a stone's throw from the Intel headquarters. A subsequent recruitment drive is slated for Iselin, New Jersey on July 24.
Both events are targeted at techies of Indian origin interested in returning to India.
The events -- to be hosted by the magazine Silicon India -- has created quite a stir among Indian techies as the idea of returning home is catching on in the face of the long-drawn crisis in the industry here. Although there are no accurate estimates of this turn-around, anecdotal evidence suggests that it is beginning to happen with increasing frequency.
"In the mid-1990s, the hot topic of conversation was the stock market boom. In the late 1990s, it was start-ups. Then it was the melt down. Now everyone is talking of relocating back to India," says Panch Chandrasekaran, an engineer with the Silicon Valley firm Altera, who plans to pop into the fair "just to have a look."
Directors of chip-maker Intel and software giant Oracle are slated to speak at the Santa Clara event that will discuss among other things technologies that are current in India and their global applications, India office-US parent relationships, compensations and lifestyle issues, and career growth and "revisits to the US".
The issues are significant because many potential Indian returnees seek to retain a toe-hold in the US while they test the waters in India.
Besides top guns Intel and Microsoft, other firms participating in the fair include Cadence, Sequence Design, Cognizant, Covansys, Insilica, FutureSoft, CalSoft, Synopsys and Informatica.
They range from chip and electronic design firms to Business Processing ops and are seeking a wide set of skills -- from hardware engineers and chip designers to software gurus and project managers.
According to Indian tech-heads in US, typically people who have family issues in the India tend to head back first. There is also a large constituency of people whose temporary work visas (H-1B) are set to expire after six years and who have not moved into the Green Card category.
The compensation ranges from one-fourth of US salary to even half, enough they believe for a comparable lifestyle in India.
However, the Santa Clara conference is also pitching the cutting edge work now being done in India. Both Intel and Microsoft have strong development centres in India and are moving increasingly more sophisticated work there, much to the dismay of US workers who believed only low-end jobs would be leaving US shores.
The US fairs will bring together recruiters, HR managers, and people who would be going back to India soon, according to Silicon India. The event will also discuss "relocation issues, lifestyle issues, career paths, futures for growth and all other concerns constantly on your minds," the magazine said while inviting potential India returnees to "meet recruiters at their booths and discuss employment opportunities for your skill set."
The first of the India-specific "career fairs" is being held July 17 in the heart of California's Silicon Valley -- at the Hilton in Santa Clara, a stone's throw from the Intel headquarters. A subsequent recruitment drive is slated for Iselin, New Jersey on July 24.
Both events are targeted at techies of Indian origin interested in returning to India.
The events -- to be hosted by the magazine Silicon India -- has created quite a stir among Indian techies as the idea of returning home is catching on in the face of the long-drawn crisis in the industry here. Although there are no accurate estimates of this turn-around, anecdotal evidence suggests that it is beginning to happen with increasing frequency.
"In the mid-1990s, the hot topic of conversation was the stock market boom. In the late 1990s, it was start-ups. Then it was the melt down. Now everyone is talking of relocating back to India," says Panch Chandrasekaran, an engineer with the Silicon Valley firm Altera, who plans to pop into the fair "just to have a look."
Directors of chip-maker Intel and software giant Oracle are slated to speak at the Santa Clara event that will discuss among other things technologies that are current in India and their global applications, India office-US parent relationships, compensations and lifestyle issues, and career growth and "revisits to the US".
The issues are significant because many potential Indian returnees seek to retain a toe-hold in the US while they test the waters in India.
Besides top guns Intel and Microsoft, other firms participating in the fair include Cadence, Sequence Design, Cognizant, Covansys, Insilica, FutureSoft, CalSoft, Synopsys and Informatica.
They range from chip and electronic design firms to Business Processing ops and are seeking a wide set of skills -- from hardware engineers and chip designers to software gurus and project managers.
According to Indian tech-heads in US, typically people who have family issues in the India tend to head back first. There is also a large constituency of people whose temporary work visas (H-1B) are set to expire after six years and who have not moved into the Green Card category.
The compensation ranges from one-fourth of US salary to even half, enough they believe for a comparable lifestyle in India.
However, the Santa Clara conference is also pitching the cutting edge work now being done in India. Both Intel and Microsoft have strong development centres in India and are moving increasingly more sophisticated work there, much to the dismay of US workers who believed only low-end jobs would be leaving US shores.
The US fairs will bring together recruiters, HR managers, and people who would be going back to India soon, according to Silicon India. The event will also discuss "relocation issues, lifestyle issues, career paths, futures for growth and all other concerns constantly on your minds," the magazine said while inviting potential India returnees to "meet recruiters at their booths and discuss employment opportunities for your skill set."