Professionals heading to India

Economy attracting Western workers:

Historically, India has been a society with a surplus of labour, accustomed to exporting skilled as well as unskilled workers abroad.

Indian governments have therefore traditionally favoured liberal migration rules and paid only limited attention to regulating immigration-outside the context of specific concerns over terrorism and cross-border flows from Bangladesh.

However, recent events suggest that the role of foreign labour in India is changing:

In May 2009 violence broke out between villagers and a group of 600 Chinese workers at a steel plant in Jharkand state. Enquiries revealed that there were up to 30,000 Chinese employed on 14 separate power projects across India, mostly without appropriate visas.

The government reacted with moves to tighten visa requirements.

Yet this in turn brought widespread protests from Indian companies, which were concerned to protect their freedom to employ skilled expatriates.

The controversy highlighted both Indian companies' growing interest in hiring high-level talent from abroad-particularly from Western countries-and the government's sluggish appreciation of this trend.

Demand for talent. Hospitality, tourism and aviation have a long history of hiring expatriate professionals for key posts in India.

More recently, firms in other sectors-including information technology (IT), banking, pharmaceutical, electronics, health care, aerospace, nuclear energy and education-have looked to do the same:

A recent study estimated that there are 40,000 expatriate workers registered as employed within Indian firms, 15 percent of whom occupy leadership roles.

Expatriate managers are seen as more willing to take risks, to innovate and to promote transparency and accountability. -Foreign recruits and Indian employees learn from each other, helping make business culture more global.

Outsourcer strategies. Indian firms providing outsourcing services have their own reasons for turning to high-level expatriate professionals.

They tend to struggle to win complex and high-end consulting jobs. One way to compete is to bring in expatriate expertise that helps build the close-to-client presence required by advanced IT consulting.

Although hiring foreign workers reduces the cost advantages India has traditionally enjoyed, firms increasingly see it as necessary if they wish to be global players. Their hiring practices complement these trends.

Destination India. Equally strong influences are drawing Western professionals, both at younger and more senior levels, to opportunities in India:

For new graduates, Indian internships offer valuable exposure to an Asian business environment.

For young professionals, international exposure and a global skill set can be vital components of an effective resume.

For more senior professionals, many firms now offer pay packages that are competitive with those in the United States, which buy an elite lifestyle in the Indian setting.

Challenges. The employment of expatriates presents a range of significant challenges in the Indian environment. Not the least of these is Indian bureaucracy and political interference in the labour market:

Following the controversy over Chinese workers, the government in October announced a crackdown on foreign workers, limiting these to technical experts and senior managers, with a stipulation that foreign nationals could comprise no more than one percent of a firm's workforce.

December saw a further amendment of the rules to create a new type of "P" visa for expatriates working on specified projects, with a maximum of 40 per project.

It is clear that the government recognizes the value of expatriate workers, but has to balance this against the political penalties of being seen, however theoretically, to be giving "Indian" jobs to foreigners.

Outlook. India's small but significant move toward the employment of skilled expatriate workers is a reversal of the long-standing "brain drain" of Indian talent to the United States and Europe. It represents the growing maturity of India's globalization.

So far, Indian firms and cities have been able to accommodate these new affluent professionals, although political interference and bureaucratic changes will remain a problem. Forbes