NEW DELHI — When 7-year-old Shiva Ayyadurai left Mumbai with his family nearly 40 years ago, he promised himself he would return to India someday to help his country.
In June, Mr. Ayyadurai, now 45, moved from Boston to New Delhi hoping to make good on that promise. An entrepreneur and lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with a fistful of American degrees, he was the first recruit of an ambitious government program to lure talented scientists of the so-called desi diaspora back to their homeland.
“It seemed perfect,” he said recently of the job opportunity.
It wasn’t.
As Mr. Ayyadurai sees it now, his Western business education met India’s notoriously inefficient, opaque government, and things went downhill from there. Within weeks, he and his boss were at loggerheads. Last month, his job offer was withdrawn. Mr. Ayyadurai has moved back to Boston.
In recent years, Mother India has welcomed back tens of thousands of former emigrants and their offspring. When he visited the United States this week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh personally extended an invitation “to all Indian-Americans and nonresident Indians who wish to return home.” But, like Mr. Ayyadurai, many Indians who spent most of their lives in North America and Europe are finding they can’t go home again.
About 100,000 “returnees” will move from the United States to India in the next five years, estimates Vivek Wadhwa, a research associate at Harvard University who has studied the topic. These repats, as they are known, are drawn by India’s booming economic growth, the chance to wrestle with complex problems and the opportunity to learn more about their heritage. They are joining multinational companies, starting new businesses and even becoming part of India’s sleepy government bureaucracy.
But a study by Mr. Wadhwa and other academics found that 34 percent of repats found it difficult to return to India — compared to just 13 percent of Indian immigrants who found it difficult to settle in the United States. The repats complained about traffic, lack of infrastructure, bureaucracy and pollution.
For many returnees the cultural ties and chance to do good that drew them back are overshadowed by workplace cultures that feel unexpectedly foreign, and can be frustrating. Sometimes returnees discover that they share more in their attitudes and perspectives with other Americans or with the British than with other Indians. Some stay just a few months, some return to the West after a few years.
Returnees run into trouble when they “look Indian but think American,” said Anjali Bansal, managing partner in India for Spencer Stuart, the global executive search firm. People expect them to know the country because of how they look, but they may not be familiar with the way things run, she said. Similarly, when things don’t operate the way they do in the United States or Britain, the repats sometimes complain.
“India can seem to have a fairly ambiguous and chaotic way of working, but it works,” Ms. Bansal said. “I’ve heard people say things like ‘It is so inefficient or it is so unprofessional.’ ” She said it was more constructive to just accept customs as being different.
Sometimes, the better fit for a job in India is an expatriate who has experience working in emerging markets, rather than someone born in India who has only worked in the United States, she said.
While several Indian-origin authors have penned soul-searching tomes about their return to India, and dozens of business books exist for Western expatriates trying to do business here, the guidelines for the returning Indian manager or entrepreneur are still being drawn.
“Some very simple practices that you often take for granted, such as being ethical in day to day situations, or believing in the rule of law in everyday behavior, are surprisingly absent in many situations,” said Raju Narisetti, who was born in Hyderabad and returned to India in 2006 to found a business newspaper called Mint, which is now the country’s second-biggest business paper by readership.
He said he left earlier than he expected because of a “troubling nexus” of business, politics and publishing that he called “draining on body and soul.” He returned to the United States this year to join The Washington Post.
There are no shortcuts to spending lots of time working in the country, returnees say. “There are so many things that are tricky about doing business in India that it takes years to figure it out,” said Sanjay Kamlani, the co-chief executive of Pangea3, a legal outsourcing firm with offices in New York and Mumbai. Mr. Kamlani was born in Miami, where his parents emigrated from Mumbai, but he has started two businesses with Indian operations.
When Mr. Kamlani started hiring in India, he met with a completely unexpected phenomena: some new recruits would not show up for work on their first day. Then, their mothers would call and say they were sick for days in a row. They never intended to come at all, he realized, but “there’s a cultural desire to avoid confrontation,” he said.
The case of Mr. Ayyadurai, the M.I.T. lecturer, illustrates just how frustrating the experience can be for someone schooled in more direct, American-style management. After a long meeting with a top bureaucrat, who gave him a handwritten job offer, Mr. Ayyadurai signed on to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, or C.S.I.R., a government-financed agency that reports to the ministry of science.
The agency is responsible for creating a new company, called C.S.I.R.-Tech, to spin off profitable businesses from India’s dozens of public laboratories. Currently, the agency, which oversees 4,500 scientists, generates just $80 million in cash flow a year, even though its annual budget is the equivalent of half a billion dollars.
Mr. Ayyadurai said he spent weeks trying to get answers and responses to e-mail messages, particularly from the person who hired him, the C.S.I.R. director general, Samir K. Brahmachari. After several months of trying to set up a business plan for the new company with no input from his boss, he said, he distributed a draft plan to C.S.I.R.’s scientists asking for feedback, and criticizing the agency’s management.
Four days later, Mr. Ayyadurai was forbidden from communicating with other scientists. Later, he received an official letter saying his job offer was withdrawn.
The complaints in Mr. Ayyadurai’s paper could be an outline for what many inside and outside India say could be improved in some workplaces here: disorganization, intimidation, a culture where top directors’ decisions are rarely challenged and a lack of respect for promptness that means meetings start hours late and sometimes go on for hours with no clear agenda.
But going public with such accusations is highly unusual. Mr. Ayyadurai circulated his paper not just to the agency’s scientists but to journalists, and wrote about his situation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. India is “sitting on a huge opportunity” to create new businesses and tap into thousands of science and technology experts, Mr. Ayyadurai said, but a “feudal culture” is holding the country back.
Mr. Brahmachari said in an interview that Mr. Ayyadurai had misunderstood nearly everything — from his handwritten job offer, which he said was only meant to suggest what Mr. Ayyadurai could receive were he to be hired, to the way Mr. Ayyadurai asked scientists for their feedback on what the C.S.I.R. spinoff should look like.
To prove his point, Mr. Brahmachari, who was two hours late for an interview scheduled by his office, read from a government guide about decision-making in the organization. Mr. Ayyadurai didn’t follow protocol, he said. “As long as your language is positive for the organization I have no problem,” he added.
As the interview was closing, Mr. Brahmachari questioned why anyone would be interested in the situation, and then said he would complain to a reporter’s bosses in New York if she continued to pursue the story.
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Pranav Mistry on TEDIndia Here is more about him
REBUILD
After 56 years of independence, hundreds of problems have heaped up to cripple our national life. The poor have become poorer, while a handful of capitalist rich people have enormously in Hated their earnings. Unemployment is steadily going up, health & education are far away from the reach of the common people. There is no indication of 'power' being handed over to the 'people'. The representatives of the national bourgeoisie capitalist class, with the patronage of the imperialist powers, are running the central administration, and as such, people's emancipation has not been achieved. Beginning from the 1930s, Subhas Chandra Bose had heen advocating from various platforms alternative means of socialist reconstruction, but our post-independence national leaders have never cared to follow them. From 1947 onwards
are quite relevant in the context of our present day national crisis.
2. In his unique reconstruction programme, Netaji gave emphasis and priority on eradication of poverty and unemployment, illiteracy and disease, proceeded, of course, by a strong national defence system. According to him, these three priority areas constituted the most vital fundamental problems of the country. [Vide his
In recent times the Nobel Prize winner and renowned economist Amartya Sen has also said that for national development, first of all, we must introduce universal primary education and healthscheme. Subhas Chandra's thoughts are echoed through Sen's theory.
3. After 'great escape' from
Subhas Chandra further emphasized that, for successful implementation of his aforesaid three priority-based programmes we must increase our national production, particularly agricultural and industrial production, through modern scientific methods and arrange for their equitable social distribution. And more precisely, he wanted to develop this system of national production and distribution through socialist means.
Subhas Chandra declared very categorically that post-independence reconstruction of
Incidentally, we may recall his observations on 'Science and Politics' made at the third general meeting of the Indian Science News Association at
posed by Professor Meghnad Saha at the meeting, the then Congress President Subhas Chandra told:
v
'Firstly, industrialisation is necessary for solving the problem of unemployment. Though scientific agriculture will increase the production of land, if food is to be given to every man and woman, a good portion of the population will have to be transferred from land to industry. Secondly, the rising generation are now thinking in terms of Socialism as the basis of national reconstruction and Socialism presupposes industrialization.' In our present context. the term 'industry' has a wider connotation, which includes urban-based large scale industries, along with rural-based small scale and cottage industries. food-processing and other agro-based industries. etc. Moreover, we must realize the significance of Netaji concept of industrialization vis-a-vis socialism.
4. For furtherance of his socialist thoughts, Subhas Chandra wanted to form a National Planning Commission which would take care to formulate a comprehensive plan for post-independence national reconstruction. During the hectic days of freedom movement, Subhas Chandra had no doubt in his mind that
The concept of co-operative federalism based on principles of decentralization and the endeavor to strengthen the local bodies by empowering the Panchayati Raj Institutions are in a way the legacy of the perceptions conceived by Netaji 65 years ago.
5. Incidentally, it may be mentioned that for tackling the three fundamental problems, as mentioned earlier, Netaji introduced two more important concepts in relation to his programme of national reconstruction which he explained in detail in his speech delivered before the students of
'But in solving this problem, we want to work in our own way. We will, naturally, study experiments made in other countries - but, after all, we have to solve our problems in an Indian way and under Indian conditions. Therefore, the system that we shall ultimately set up will be an Indian system to suit the needs of the Indian people.' [
But unfortunately, during the last five decades, this way of solving
~~ ~
to demarcate the areas of public sector and private sector.
Private sector can be allowed to operate in the economic field, say in the field of industry or agriculture or in the field of housing or infrastructure development, but they must work under the overall guidelines and policy framework of the state and national planning body. Private sector may also work in collaboration with public sector under the same policy framework. But for overall national interest, multinational companies cannot be generally encouraged to operate in Indian soil. It is a common experience for the developing countries that MNCs generally cause exploitation of the poor, weakening of national economy and uphold the interest of the neo-imperialist forces. Netaji time and again warned his countrymen against the evils of imperialism and possible. activities or post-war neo-imperialist agencies.
6. Subhas Chandra has suggested in different contexts various means of eradication of poverty. The main facets of these suggestions are abolition of Zamindary system, radical land reforms, granting of agricultural loans and development of co-operative movement, increasing agricultural production by scientific methods, widespread industrial development plan under state ownership and state control, and at the same time, revival of cottage industries in necessary spheres, etc.
The relevant portion from Subhas Chandra's Haripura speech (1938) may be quoted in this context : 'Regarding reconstruction, our principal problem will be how to eradicate poverty from our country. That will require radical reform of our land system, including the abolition of landlordism. Agricultural indebtedness will have to be liquidated and provision made for cheap credit for the rural population. An extension of the co-operative movement will be necessary for the benefit of both producers and consumers. Agriculture will have to be put on a scientific basis with a view to increase the yield from the land.
'To solve the economic problem, agricultural improvement will not be enough. A comprehensive scheme of industrial development under state ownership and control will be indispensable. A new industrial system will have to be built up in place of the old one, which has collapsed as a result of mass production abroad and alien rule at home. A Planning Commission will have to consider carefully and decide which of the home industries could be revived despite the competition of modern factories, and in which sphere large-scale production should be encouraged.
During the last five decades after independence all these means of reconstruction suggested by Subhas Chandra have not been followed by and large. Distribution of surplus land to landless, landownership rights to the tillers, recovery of vested fallow land and turning those to cultivable land, forest land to the landless poor and to develop social forestry and cultivation, etc. are some of the important facets of radical land reforms. This sort of radical land reforms have not been implemented throughout the whole country with due sincerity and urgency. Due to the central policy-makers' unholy compromise and alliance with the capitalists and landlords, the interests of the hungry poor millions have largely suffered.
During the last five decades after independence all these means of reconstruction suggested by Subhas Chandra have not been followed by and large. Distribution of surplus land to landless, landownership rights to the tillers, recovery of vested fallow land and turning those to cultivable land, forest land to the landless poor and to develop social forestry and cultivation, etc. are some of the important facets of radical land reforms. This sort of radical land reforms have not been implemented throughout the whole country with due sincerity and urgency. Due to the central policy-makers' unholy compromise and alliance with the capitalists and landlords, the interests of the hungry poor millions have largely suffered.
7. For the sake of pro-people agriculture and industrial developments, Subhas Chandra advocated state control and nationalization. But he didn't stop at that point. He want further to make radical recommendations that all that we needed ultimately was the 'socialization' of our means of agricultural and industrial production and distribution. He clearly stated in his Haripura speech (1938) : 'The State, on the advice of obviously didn't move on his line. In spite of l nationa\i2'i\t\Cm in the field of banking, insurance, a few heavy industries and others, mainly due to evils of bourgeois leadership and bureaucratic set-up, even after 56 years, the country is facing hundreds of acute problems - and still now, millions of people are living below the poverty line. On the plea of this apparent failure of experiments with nationalization, but obviously. ignoring the basic reasons behind. countrywide processes of denationalization have now started. The country has thus started moving again in backward direction. Series of disinvestments and privatization have followed. The country is no\v being tied up with the reins of capitalist economy. In the midst of this difficult situation, the country again desires to seek solace and guidance in the planned socialistic reconstruction programme advocated by Netaji Subhas Chandra.
Incidentally, it may be mentioned that bureaucratic mentality or work may raise its head in different forms, but it, in each of its form, is harmful for the nation. As the administrative bureaucracy is harmful, so is equally harmful the party bureaucracy. That the party bureaucracy can occasionally be dangerously harmful for a nation, is quite very evident from the downfall of the
8. For implementation of Subhas Chandra's proposed programme of reconstruction and socialization, we need, no doubt, extra capital. If we can go ahead with a well-planned, disciplined approach towards a well-defined goal of public welfare, we can solve the problem of capital by social utilization of abundant resources that are available in a vast country like
Besides this general approach, Subhas Chandra gave some concrete suggestions for procuring extra capital. In his Haripura speech (1938), Subhas Chandra suggested that we can go for internal or external loans for the purpose or even we may take the course of inflation. To quote him: 'Extra capital will have to be procured for this, whether th~ internal or external loans or through internal [Haripura . speech, 1938].
But these methods should be deeply scrutin1 from all possible angles. In our present circumstances, the country is so over burdened J huge quantity of internal and external debts, these methods will not be feasible proposition Subhas Chandra agreed in principle to raise internal or external loans. But the main thing to l considered is, on what terms or from what source or under what circumstances we should secure loans or take measures for inflation. Otherwise there would be scope for confusion or wrong direction. Our present day rulers have made our national economy crippled, dependent and anti -people by accepting external loans from imperialist1 and capitalist bodies (like IMF, World Bank 01'1 WTO) in their terms and conditions. That the 1 country is now in a debt-trap, is a matter of serious 1 concern. If we arc clear in our objective and honest in our purpose, no vested interest can divert us to 1 any anti-people wrong path. That is what Subhas 1 taught us.
9. That Subhas Chandra was very clear and 1 transparent in his political vision and objectives, was evident from his political philosophy and a 1 related statement which we may refer to here. The basic objective of his socialist thoughts was to improve the lot of millions of toiling masses of
In this way, by defeating the capitalist system, patronized by imperialists, Subhas Chandra wanted to build up socialism in
10. In the name of 'globalisation', the present Indian policy is pushing the indigenous industry in sharp competition with the foreign industry of capitalist and imperialist countries, as a result of which the Indian industry and economy are on the brink of serious crises. Subhas chandra warned the country long before - 60 years ago - against the damaging effects of such unequal competition in industrial field. Subhas Chandra told : 'it is, of course, preposterous to permit foreigners in this country to complete with the nationals on equal terms, The right of the future Indian Parliament to differentiate or discriminate between nationals and non-nationals, whenever Indian interests require it. should remain intact and this we cannot sacrifice on any account.' [Haripura Speech, 1938]. Unfortunately, in free
When we are now Swept away by the onslaught of globalisation and the country is on the verge of losing economic sovereignty, we remember how strongly Netaji advocated for national autonomy. In response to Prof. Meghnad Saha's query, he said : 'Though from the industrial point of view the world is one unit, we should nevertheless aim at national autonomy, especially in the field of our principal needs and requirements'. (August 21,1938)
11.Ever increasing population is undoubtedly a problem for successful implementation of reconstruction programme. Subhas Chandra had, therefore, rightly drawn our attention to the population problem long before. He was of the opinion that the trend of increasing population could create problem for any of our long-term programme. He explicitly told, '1 simply want to point out that where poverty, starvation and disease are stalling the land, we cannot afford to have our population mounting up by thirty millions during a single decade' [Haripura speech, 1938]. We have not been able to fully realize this truth even in 56 years, hence the problem goes on increasing. lndia's population was about 35 crores by the end of thirties, while currently the population of divided
12. We must not forget another important aspect of Subhas Chandra's revolutionary reconstruction programme. Subhas Chandra wanted to build up a new modern
In the October, 1935 issue of the journal 'Science and Culture', edited by Meghnad Saha, Subhas Chandra wrote in his article 'Some problems of nation-building' - that we must adopt modern science and culture in our work of national building. Neither the Gandhite opposition to modern industry, nor the orthodox leftists' opposition to computers or modem information technology is desirable. At the same time, we must not forget the past tradition and culture of
13. Education was also an important aspect of Subhas Chandra's socialistic reconstruction programme. He looked at Education on a national perspective. He said 'through' a common educational policy we shall have to foster a common spirit among the entire population' [Haripura speech, 1938]. But what about our present education system? It is discriminating in nature, offering vast opportunities to the rich and minimum to the poor, and thus creating a disparity in society, resulting in social imbalance right from the beginning.
Subhas Chandra deeply felt that education must develop a national spirit and patriotism amongst us right from our childhood. Children must be taught to love the country and render service to the common people. This sort of training would help to foster solidarity and harmony among the entire population. ['An Indian Pilgrim', S. C. Bose] Imparting such education is, therefore, very important with a view to nation-building. 'Man-making mission' propounded by Vivekananda and a vision of universality propagated by Rabindranath Tagore inspired Subhas Chandra to formulate such policy of education in free
We must also resist all sorts of attempts to commercialize and/or to communalise education. Education must not be allowed to be used as a commodity for making profits. A free and man-making education can strengthen the foundation of our nation.
Netaji also thought about other aspects of education. He suggested: 'experiments will have to be made for evolving a national system of education in accordance with the needs of the Indian people ['Free India and her problems',
So far as technical research is concerned, we shall agree that it should be free of governmental control of every kind. It is only in this unfortunate country that government servants are entrusted with scientific research on receipt of princely salaries and we know very well what results have been obtained there from' ['Science and Politics' answers to questions posed by Prof. Meghnad Saha : August 21, 1938].
14.Of late, three very critical problems are bothering us most. These three problems are firstly, regionalism and divisiveness; secondly, communalism and minority problems, and thirdly, problems of self-reliance for the backward, weaker and underdeveloped classes. By exploiting, distorting and instigating these three problems, many small or big parties have recently sprung up in Indian politics and are serving their self-interests, but basically they are retarding the progress of the country. Subhas Chandra had repeatedly warned us regarding these three problems and had expressed the necessity of solving th.cl11 for proper reconstruction of the country.
Subhas Chandra's revolutionary thoughts regarding overall development of united
Fight against communalism and casteism is an integral part of Subhas Chandra's concept of socialism. He fought throughout his life against these two social monsters. When Subhas first gave this call for fight against discrimination on caste and creed, when he started to plead for socioeconomic and educational development and self-reliance for the backward classes, at that time, many of today's so-called leaders of scheduled castes, tribes and backward classes could not be traced even. But during the last 50 years taking advantage of the Government's inaction and indifference in the matter, many divisive forces have come out in the open. We can get rid of such a situation only by following Subhas' way.
As Subhas Chandra fought against the capitalist and feudal forces, he also fought, particularly in view of Indian situation, against the divisive forces of casteism. He declared in his speech, at the London Conference in June, 1933 : 'Free
Netaji's concept about communalism was also very clear and deeply analytic. He was of the opinion that the problem of communalism was created - the Britishers used to nurse this discriminating policy in the interest of sustaining their rule in
15. Netaji fought throughout his life against two sinister menace - one, imperialism, and the other, communalism, which he asserted, caused tremendous damage to
16. Of course, Netaji could visualize it long before. While leading the INA in the final war of independence from abroad, Netaji wrote an open letter to Gandhiji sometime in 1944. Obviously, that was the time when the Second World War was heading for its final stage as the Anglo-American forces were fighting hard against the Axis Powers. During this critical juncture of time Netaji in his aforesaid letter made some historical comments, rather political forecast, about the emerging postwar World Power. Netaji said: 'Even if the Allies could somehow win the war, it will be
Netaji further said in his letter about the war aims of the
As we all know, Netaji's forecasts have been proved to be correct. The American imperialists are dominating the world since the post-war day. Their aggressive military powers, as well as economic ambitions are viciously spreading their tentacles over the hundreds of developing countries, and
After the end of Cold War the
