India's scientists return as opportunities beckon

INDIA - In returning to India to work as a scientist two years ago, Dr Praveen Kumar Vemula achieved two things in one stroke: one, to work in the virtually virgin market for biomedics and the other, to repay a debt to his motherland.

"I came back with a scientific vision," says the 39-year-old former Harvard Medical School-Massachusetts Institute of Technology fellow, who left India in 2006 to research biomedical technologies.

"My dream is to do high-quality translational science from India," says Dr Vemula, referring to his field of work in which he develops ways to build and monetise new biomedical technologies.

He now works at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, southern India, and is among a growing tribe of Indian scientists who are returning home, drawn by a fast-improving environment for high-quality research.

For a long time, India's brightest scientific brains left for the West, especially the United States, attracted by its world-class research facilities and job opportunities. Nearly all who did their doctorates abroad stayed on to work. This left India with only a very small pool of qualified scientists.

To reverse the tide, the Indian government, its elite teaching institutions and industry began to take initiatives about a decade ago to build world-class research facilities, give generous fellowships and research grants, and offer well-paying jobs.

For most returning scientists, three fellowships have proved a major draw. The Ramanujan and Ramalingaswami fellowships carry high grants and salaries, while Britain's Wellcome Trust is co-sponsoring a 10-year, US$250 million (S$319 million) fellowship for biomedical scientists.

"One has a lot more freedom in fellowships, using the funds and choosing the right institute to join," says Dr Balasubramaniyam Virappan, 35, a Ramalingaswami fellow who returned from London last year to do research on liver diseases.

At least 500 Indian scientists have returned in the past seven years, a sign that the measures are working. The demand for lucrative research fellowships in India today far outstrips supply.

A recent study done by global knowledge consultants Elsevier found that India had a 0.6 per cent net inflow of scientists - namely, a brain gain - over a 15-year period. This is because incoming and visiting scientists are more productive than those who stay put in India or are leaving the country.

Dr Vemula noted that in the past 10 years, there has been an enormous improvement in infrastructure and also enhanced collaboration between individual labs and between institutions.

Getting funds used to be a problem, as was the lack of qualified staff. Only about 10 per cent of government research money went to universities, with half the teaching positions at top technology institutes and universities left unfilled.

The funding problem has largely been solved with the government allocating more money for research. In some top technical schools, this went up more than tenfold to ensure that bright students remain in their institutions to do independent research.

"As a result, we are able to get more projects funded and more big-budget projects approved," says Dr Kaushik Chatterjee, 34, a Ramanujan fellow at Bangalore's Indian Institute of Science.

Explaining his decision to leave the US to return two years ago, he said: "I felt that if I can pursue my career goal, which is academic research, in India at the same level as that in the West, then there's no reason not to come back."

Other factors contributing to the reverse brain drain are intense competition among scientists in the West and also more restrictive visa policies in recent years. Those who return from abroad have an opportunity to say they are back to serve their country.

This partly explains growing demand for fellowships. The Ramalingaswami programme, for instance, received 136 applications for 50 seats for its 2012/13 intake.

Still, the West beckons and about 75 per cent of Indian scientists are working in the US alone.

The United Nations Development Programme says India loses US$2 billion a year in potential productivity from the emigration of computer experts to the US alone. Indian students going abroad for higher studies also cost foreign exchange outflow of some US$13 billion annually.

Most returning scholars believe things are looking up for India.

"Largely (it is) a combination of growing opportunities in India and shrinking research career prospects in the US," says Dr Chatterjee, summing up the reasons for the change. "On a personal note, there is always a reason to come back."

mkritti@sph.com.sg

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