Indian Emigration

In News

• Recently, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA),has provided the information that In the year  2022, 3,73,434 Indians emigrated to 18 countries.

About

• India has become a major exporter of Skilled and semiskilled workers to developed nations particularly to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Europe, and other English-speaking countries.
• Reasons for Emigration: 
  • Better standard of living: The developed countries provide better living standards, salaries, tax benefits, etc, which becomes a great attraction for emigration.
  • Easy migration policies: with Fertility levels falling,The developed nations are easing migration policies to attract talents to boost their economy. 
  • Lack of higher education opportunities: The increasing cut-offs and legion of competitive exams make access to higher education difficult in India. 
  • Lower-income: Developed countries offer better pay to sectors like health, research, IT, etc. Income is one of the main triggers of emigration from India.
  • Lack of financial research support: India’s Gross domestic expenditure on research has stayed at 0.7% of the GDP for years. India has one of the lowest GERD/GDP ratios among the BRICS nations. So, the minds in R&D tend to migrate to other countries to continue their research.

Consequences

• Emigration from India will provide remittances to the country.
  • During 2021-22, India received foreign inward remittances of $89,127 million which was the highest ever inward remittances received in a single year.
• It will strengthen Indian interests abroad.
• Emigration benefits the foreign economy with skills that were developed at the cost of the Indian taxpayer.it is a net loss of talent.
• Emigration deprives India of skilled manpower.

Initiatives

• Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) Programme: The programme aims to attract talented youth to the study of science at an early stage and build the required critical human resource pool for strengthening and expanding the Science & Technology system and R&D base.
• The Ramanujan Fellowship: It is meant for brilliant Indian scientists from outside India to take up scientific research positions in India.
• The Ramalingaswami Fellowship: It provides a platform to scientists who are willing to return and work in India.
• Vaishvik Bharatiya Vaigyanik (VAIBHAV) summit: Under this, Numerous overseas Indian-origin academicians and Indians participated to form ideas on innovative solutions to several challenges.

Way Forward

• By focussing on education and with adequate investment in cutting edge technologies India should create conditions favourable for attraction of talent rather than looking to contain emigration.

Source: PIB