Page 38 - ELT_3rd_1st May 2020_Vol 372_Part

A96 EXCISE LAW TIMES [ Vol. 372

BRAIN DRAIN : A NEED FOR REVERSAL
By
Manas Kumar Jha

“Of all the immigrant scientists and engineers in the
United States in 2013, 57% were born in Asia.” -
Report by
‘National Science
Foundation’, 2013

Brain drain and brain gain are the terms used to
describe the aspects of human capital flight or migration of human capital from
one country to another. Brain drain refers to the loss borne by a country due to
migration of its highly educated and talented nationals to other countries (gener-
ally more developed). Brain gain refers to the benefits reaped by the host country
where this legal immigration is taking place. Although the migration of skilled
labour is beneficial for the host country as well as parent country in some ways,
it is also detrimental for the both in lots of ways.
Some notable examples of human capital flight can be taken from pre-
World War-II era from Europe (mainly Germany and Italy) due to antisemitism.
The examples are all Nobel Laureates : Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Enrico
Fermi. Post World War-II era saw recruitment of German scientist by US and
USSR. Taking contemporary examples from India there are many famous per-
sonalities like Alphabet’s CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadela, For-
mer RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, Nobel Laureate Abhijeet Benerjee, and
many more who migrated abroad and contributed a lot in other nations though
doing much for India. Now the question arises is that, why and how this phe-
nomena of brain drain took pace in last quarter of last century?
So while, turning towards the causes of brain drain, we get to see that
there are two factors - push factors of parent country and pull factors of host
country. Push factor may include poor living conditions and social insecurity,
low salary and insufficient working conditions, less economic opportunities, po-
litical and price instability, poor quality of educational and healthcare infrastruc-
ture due to lack of public expenditure and policy initiatives, insufficient funding
and social support for research and development, lack of food security, orthodox
social evils, etc. Pull factors may include better living conditions and lifestyle,
more investments on research and development, satisfactory working conditions,
ample economic opportunities, food security and comparably strong currency,
favourable migration policies, politically stable Governments, better quality edu-
cation and healthcare, liberal social norms, etc. And likewise every phenomena
brain drain has its own set of pros and cons.
Brain drain has consequences on both parent and host countries. Look-
ing at the positive consequences, chief among them is the economic benefit. Host
country experiences brain gain and along with it, currency appreciation as talent
attracts investments. Parent country benefits in the form of remittances, sent back
home by the non-resident nationals, which help in times of natural calamity.
EXCISE LAW TIMES  1st May 2020  38