Phasing Scientific Migration in the Context of Brain Gain and Brain Drain in India

Five decades of India's experience of migration of highly qualified personnel (HQ P), as presented in this paper, broadly falls into three distinct but overlapping periods, namely: 1940s to 1960s; 1970 to 1980s; and 1990s and beyond. In the post-indepen dence period up to the 1960s, India did not really experience the trend of brain drain. The demand pattern created by the official policies to expand the university sector and strengthen the infrastructure in science and technology determined the human resource policies in training, higher education and even attracted some established Indian scientists from abroad during this early phase. Beginning with the 1970s, India began to experience the problem of brain drain, for which several economic and sociological factors were responsible including the oversupply of HQP and the lack of demand for these personnel. Even though different trends are discernible during the 1980s and 1990s, the case discussed here illustrates that India continues to lose its scientific and technical human resources—despite the new opportunities created by the present trend of globalisation. Any relative short-term gains visible in the form of brain gain and arresting the process of brain drain are likely to be neutralised by the lack of appropriate long-term policy measures. The paper calls for such policy interventions, rather than ad hoc measures, to address the problem of India's brain drain.