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Indian managers stay
home
Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - They are the cream of the
Indian corporate sector. The graduates of the
Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are to
Indian multinationals and businesses what the
engineers of the Indian Institutes of Technologies
(IITs) are to the Indian (and US) software sector.
For long, India watchers have bemoaned the fact
that the best (graduates of IIT and IIMs) do not
stick around in the country and look for better
opportunities abroad.
However, the
unshackling of the Indian economy in 1992 has
meant that private enterprise is now beginning to
come of age, with the services sector contributing
more than half of India's gross domestic product
(GDP). And with good jobs available in India
itself, more and more young managers are opting to
stay home.
The one authoritative indicator
that top jobs and talent are indeed staying on in
this country has been the placement season at the
IIMs, an event that generates huge media attention
every year. What everybody watches out for are the
number of zeros added to the starting salaries of
young management graduates (most under 25, unlike
the higher average international age), who are the
envy and role models of the entire nation. The
highest salaries, the best employers, the best
placements and the average emoluments form
front-page stories of every national newspaper for
days. Top recruiters include Boston Consulting
Group, McKinsey & Co, AT Kearney, Deloitte
Consulting, JP Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers and
HSBC Investment Banking.
This year the
placements have thrown up a curious result -
graduates spurning offers from Western countries.
While each management graduate from these
institutes could easily boast of at least two job
offers, what has caught the eye of observers are
the few who have spurned top jobs abroad to hang
on to equally good prospects in India. One could
not grudge these bright graduates for leaving the
country a decade ago when there were hardly any
jobs to speak of in the country matching their
caliber, with the Indian private sector crushed by
the weight of all-pervasive government controls.
But the popular complaint was that since the IITs
and IIMs were heavily subsidized by the
government, it was the Indian taxpayer who was
subsidizing manpower that ultimately benefited
alien economies. Though the IIMs have raised their
fees, the government still plays an active role in
their management. The IITs continue to function
with government doles.
But the tendency of
IIM graduates to seek Western jobs is clearly on
the wane, reflecting the changing mindset about
opportunities in the country itself. The graduates
of IIM-Ahmedabad, which is rated the highest among
the IIMs, have received the highest foreign salary
offers among business schools in India this year.
But for the first time, over a dozen students from
IIM-A have spurned offers for foreign postings.
Kanishka Raja, an electronics engineer
from Lucknow, has been quoted in the media as
saying that he did not have any second thoughts
when he turned down a job offered by Bain and Co
in Singapore with an annual pay package of
US$90,000, for a posting in Mumbai offered by
Boston Consulting Group. His pay: $30,000. "Money
was not the consideration, neither was purchasing
power parity. As for the companies, both rank
among the top three in the sector. It was a
personal choice as the job profile here appealed
to me. I wanted to make a positive difference here
in India. The sacrifice I have to make in terms of
quality of life is nothing compared to this,"
Kanishka said.
Family and familiarity are
the prime movers for Harshvardan Sharma, who said
no to a $65,000 offer from Merrill Lynch for a
posting in New York to join P&G in India. "If
you are good, you can make money anywhere. India
is no longer untouchable. Business is vibrant here
and opportunities are growing. Moreover, the job
profile offered here was more interesting," said
Harshvardan.
This, however, doesn't mean
that foreign offers were in short supply. At IIM-A
alone, there were 71 overseas offers, compared to
45 last year. At IIM-Kolkata, there were 45 - 15
more than the previous year. The four top IIMs
totaled 196 international offers compared to 106
last year. The highest salary this year was bagged
by 26-year-old chartered accountant from Delhi,
Ravi Singhvi, who got an offer of $152,000 from
HSBC London, which is as much as a fresh graduate
from an Ivy League school from the US gets. The
average international salary offer was $80,000
while the maximum domestic salary touched $40,000,
offered by GECIS.
Admission to the IITs
and IIMs is extremely competitive. In the case of
the seven IITs, there are over 3,000 seats up for
grabs, while the six IIMs take in some 1,300
students every year. More than 200,000 students
appear for the IITs while 100,000 compete for the
IIMs. Going by the percentage of applicants
admitted, it is considered more difficult to make
it to IIM-Ahmedabad than Harvard Business School.
The number of Indians staying at home adds
to the burgeoning trend of foreign workers seeking
employment in India. There are more than 12,000
foreigners registered to work in Bangalore, mostly
in information technology. A couple of years back,
Indian headhunters talked of foreigners looking
for brighter employment in India as just a
trickle, more at an inquiry stage. The trend has
firmed up now as more and more Americans,
Europeans, Japanese and Filipinos - to name just a
few - have begun to fly in to take advantage of
jobs that provide global exposure as well as an
opportunity to climb the corporate ladder. The
number of foreign nationals working in India has
risen to over 50,000 and continues to grow.
There have also been recent reports that
debunk the negative connotation of "brain drain".
A United Nations Economic and Social Survey
finding says migration benefits both destination
and host countries. It also says that fears of
migrants taking away jobs or reducing wage rates
in the host country aren't valid either because
migrants expand the demand for goods and services,
add to the growth of the economy and contribute
more to the economy than they take away from it.
Siddharth Srivastava is a New
Delhi-based journalist.
(Copyright
2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
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