Significant rise in number of Indian scientists returning to country: Government

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New Delhi: A total of 649 Indian scientists returned to the country to work in Indian institutes and universities over the last five years as against 243 during 2007-12, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences YS Chowdary termed the rise in the number as "significant".

"There is a significant increase in the number of Indian scientists returning to work in India during the last five years...The number of Indian scientists returned to India in the last five years (2012-17) stands at 649 as against 243 in the period 2007-12," Chowdary said in written reply to a question.

The minister said that the Department of Science and Technology (DST) through the Ramanujan Fellowship Scheme and the Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) Faculty Scheme provide attractive avenues to Indian researchers of high calibre, who are residing in foreign countries, to work in Indian institutes/universities.

Similarly, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has been offering Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship to attract Indian scientists to the country.

He said that the ministry did not have a mechanism to keep track or estimate the number of Indian scientists who leave the country to work abroad.