Brain gain

I have been glued to this one book for the last couple of days. It's called The Tipping Point, written by Malcolm Gladwell. Most of us have probably come across the title while flipping through book reviews, or seen it on sidewalks (a pity that they give Landmark a run for its money). Malcolm Gladwell does a wonderful job in explaining why major trend changes often times happen within small time frames, as with the case of the sudden rise in popularity of the Hush Puppies footwear brand in the USA in the mid-90's. Keeping it short, Hush Puppies was a brand whose popularity was headed south. Sales were down to 30,000 pairs a year in 1994. But by late 1995- early 96, the brand had resurrected and sales were going through the roof at astronomical 430,000 pairs a year. Astronomical, considering the fact that all those tables turned inside a short span of 2-3 years.

I am still midway through the book. But somewhere along the way I couldn't help but to pause and think about the whole shift in trend in India w.r.t to immigration. The great Indian Dream of the 80's and 90's was so well woven into the public mindset: get a good education, go to 'foreign', get a job (the dollar was fetching 50 bucks back then), live frugally, save up, come home, get married and run back with her and lead a life of apparent significance in Uncle Sam's or Bob' s house. While in middle school, I remember participating in debates where an oft repeated topic was that of Brain drain: boon or bane, so to state. Writers, statesmen, industrialists and academics wrote and debated on this issue at length. Somehow, everyone was focused on fixing 'Brain drain'. In a doctor's tongue, brain drain itself wasn't the problem. It was the symptom of the problem. And the problem was economic growth. We were seeing ridiculous growth rates of 3 and 4 percent all through the 90's. For a developing economy, 3 percent could get us as far as the neighbour's compound. And for those who wanted to leapfrog on to the fast track, India was just not the vehicle. In retrospect, the government back then could have done little to keep these men and women from boarding flights to greener pastures.

And what has heppened now? Inside a short 4 to 5 years, post 2002-03, everything has been reversed. The same people who ran away are now coming back. Youngsters, like you and me, have realised that the go to US-drive a second hand Ford-stay there forever isn't such a good deal to get rich after all. The dollar's losing ground to the rupee. And 9% for India is like 'duh!'. KV Kamath, MD of ICICI Bank believes that the next 20 years (at least) will see India growing. Will there be fluctuations ahead? Of course. But will we stop moving ahead? Of course not.

If you happen to be typically in your early twenties, here's a wise thing to do. Get an education. Stay in India. Find a suitable employer (they are easier to find than you might think). But besides working 9 to 5, build a business part time. You might think, why? The answer very simply is that if there is anyway that you can participate and claim a slice of the Indian growth story, it is by owning a business and creating investments. To create strong investments requires knowledge of the business domain. Renowned personal finance guru Robert Kiyosaki talks about how employees investments' and those of business men are greatly different. You would want to get the best of both worlds, I presume. Work-build a business-invest in India should ideally be your mantra for the forthcoming years in your career. Does that mean the plan of going abroad as in the 80's and 90's is redundant? In all the probability, the answer is yes. But we won't have another debate on Brain gain:boon or bane.