Indians abroad seek to bring worldly experiences to bear on their return
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Version 0 of 1. After eight years studying and working in the US with companies such as Deutsche Bank and Amazon, Anand Ahuja returned to India in 2011. "I wanted to start my own line of clothes – good denims, good T-shirts and dresses which are not really available in India," said the 28-year-old, who speaks with an American twang. "The lifestyle in the US is great, but here, my total investment is a quarter of what it would have been there, and even if there are bigger challenges in India, there are also bigger opportunities." Since the global economic crisis of 2008, which plunged most economies into recession and led to a shrinking foreign job market as well as visa restrictions for Indian students, increasing numbers have returned home to pursue better opportunities. India's population of 1.2 billion and its huge middle classes represent potentially rich pickings. But the current general election comes at a delicate time, with growth having fallen from almost 9% in 2010 to 4.5% last year. "I see many Indians who have come back and joined Indian firms or they have struck out on their own," said Malini Goyal, senior editor for the Indian newspaper the Economic Times. "Some are bringing back the ecosystems India needs in business, IT, energy and technology. Some have connected the dots between the US and India." She says ambitious parents will continue to send their children overseas owing to a shortage of elite universities, but as the economy strengthens, even more Indians will seek stints back home. The list of the most well known returnees includes actors, authors and entrepreneurs. Katrina Kaif, one of the most successful Bollywood actors, is British-Indian and was born in Hong Kong. Sunny Leone is an Indo-Canadian-American adult film star, who has made millions in California, but is now starring in popular Indian films such as Ragini MMS 2. The governor of India's central bank, Raghuram Rajan, is an award-winning former professor from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. And author Chetan Bhagat left behind a high-flying investment banking career in Hong Kong to become one of India's best-selling novelists. India received an estimated $71bn (£42bn) in remittances last year from nonresident Indians (NRIs), according to the World Bank. While foreigners are often confounded by the way business is conducted in India, with its official red tape, corruption, systems of patronage and restrictions that still dominate despite economic liberalisation, NRIs can tap into family and social connections to negotiate those obstacles. What young returnees like Ahuja would really like to see is for India to live up to its potential, shedding the nepotism and corruption in favour of transparency and accountability. "The US has an incredible culture of giving back," he said, adding that he admired the philanthropy of Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft's Bill Gates and billionaire investor Warren Buffett. Shanthala Damle spent 12 years in the suburbs of Washington, working in software and applications development. But she is far more interested in what America's democratic institutions, rather than its business ones, can offer India. "I always wanted to come back to India and try to help clean up politics," she said. She volunteered for local campaigns in her adopted country and returned to India armed with grassroots political lessons. "I want to see a society where policies are intellectually debated and honesty and integrity are the minimum requirement of a candidate," she said in Bangalore, where she stood for public office but lost. Damle is now a volunteer for the Aam Aadmi (Common Man) party, the underdog in the current general election, which which won a stunning political victory in Delhi in local elections in December, but managed only 49 days in power. "We are too comfortable with our flawed democracy in India. I want to bring in more transparency and citizen participation," she said. "The US wasn't built by magic, it happened because ordinary people got involved. This [India] is my motherland and I'd like to have an impact." The impact of NRIs is already starting to be felt in India, said Malini Goyal of the Economic Times. "People are taking frequent holidays, they talk more about work-life balance. Indians never went out for breakfast, but lots of restaurants are now doing brunches. "I went to a company whose Harvard-educated founder insisted on a canteen in which everyone washed their own plates. I don't think it will catch on, but you see all these efforts." NRIs have the right to vote in elections, which started this week, but few are likely to because there is no provision for absentee ballots or for voting booths in Indian embassies. They must be physically present in India to vote. Yet, however piecemeal, they are contributing to changing values in India, whether in business or just in day-to-day expectations. "Confidence is something I value a lot," Ahuja said, fidgeting with something blue around his wrist. "Oh sorry, this is just a really great rubber band I brought back from the US. They're hard to find here." |