Bollywood fans are well aware of the smart Indian-born NASA Project Manager, who on a short holiday to India, drives his camper van to a remote village called Charanpur looking for someone, only to face complications and get stuck for a bit longer. During his few weeks in Charanpur, along with the regular falling-in-love affair, he is seen fighting a rigid Panchayat system run by leaders who lack basic foresight and finally shows them the power of education by generating electricity for the village by harnessing energy off water flowing down a hill. Last weekend happened to be my tryst with this dude, Mohan Bhargava, who after lighting his first bulb in Charanpur, hurries back to NASA, finishes his project and packs up to return back, wanting to make a difference to his Motherland. His Swades.
As a student, I was often told of a certain phenomenon by my teachers - the brain drain, which refers to the emigration of intelligent, well-educated individuals to someplace else for better pay or living conditions. I was also almost certainly promised then, that as we progress towards becoming a global super power, these individuals would return back one day, causing a reverse brain drain effect, wanting to be part of the great Indian growth story.
Sadly though this still looks a far fetched thought, as we still haven't been able to build a trust on our education system. With the utmost probability, the most ambitious of our students, who are also the most likely to create a difference, all want to pursue a higher technical education overseas. Although pretty heavy on the expenses, these Masters degrees serve as a perfect visa to that someplace else for the better pay or living conditions. The repayment of the hefty educational loans serves as a guarantee for at least 5 years or even more after which they feel a sense of belongingness to their new country. A few lucky ones are even picked up right after their Bachelor's degree by innovative companies like Facebook and relocated to wealthy developed countries like the USA. And why not, who would turn down these super lucrative offers which now seem to have crossed the 1 crore per annum mark! Yeah, these are 21 yr old kids we are talking about. That practically leaves no scope for these individuals wanting to return to their Motherland in the near future.
This brings us to a very important question - When will students from all over the World travel to India for an education? When will India be the hot and favored education destination? In the last few years countries like China, Korea and Singapore have done their absolute best in attracting young students from all over the World to their universities, but India has totally failed to create any kind of mark in this regard. Our Governments have time and again announced an increase in the number of IIT's & IIM's but have never looked at bringing back the best of Indian faculty in Foreign Universities to improve the quality of our education system.
So then, when will the best ink stop being Japanese, the best automobiles stop being German, construction technology stop being French, defense technology stop being Israeli, mobile phones stop being Chinese, airplanes stop being American, gadgets stop being Korean! Why couldn't an Infoscian develop an iPod? Or the Tata's design the A380? The list could go on and on and on without any answer whatsoever!
I really don't know who is to blame here. The Indian economy boasts of a strong and stable growth rate with a GDP that has recently overtaken the Japanese to 3rd spot at over $6 trillion. Are we then, still a poor country incapable of luring our people to return back?
No doubt Indians are innovating all over. But sadly India is not. There seems to be a complete lack of technical innovation in India. The country is facing the same issues faced by developing countries 50 or even 100 yrs earlier. Haven't we learnt any lessons at all to improve our living conditions? We build new cities without any mention of the metros. We build new suburbs without basic infrastructure like roads and railways. Our villages still lack basic necessities like electricity, schools and sanitation. Our roads still don't last more than a couple of years. Does it really take Rocket Science to build a road that lasts a couple of decades?
Our education system & living conditions seriously need improvement if we are to control this brain drain. Once the first few of our well-educated & well-traveled people, having seen the best of development across the world, take the initiative and return back truly wanting to make a difference, they could assist our lawmakers in bringing the best of technology into use right from the grass root level. For sure, the rest would follow. And Swades could be re-written a thousand times!
So then, where are these Mohan Bhargava's we were promised?
Come back guys, what is this wait for? Come back and light your bulb in your India!
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