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Copyright: IMRTI.com Page 1

IMRTI Study on Return to India- A White Paper

Introduction

A growing number of non resident Indians are willing to return back after climbing corporate

hierarchy in last two decades around the world. However, they lack suitable resources that can

help them make an informed decision. In response to this challenge, new services have sprungup in the form of web portals, placement agencies and trade fairs but these services have not

been successful in tapping this talented resource pool and meet its needs and expectations. One

part of the problem is lack of well known research to understand the socio-economic

background of this community and make decisions based on that.

We conducted an extensive study of Indian economy and job market and compared it with Indian

Americans distribution in various industries in the US. Through this study, we have also tried to

identify what are the key professional issues around returning to India and how they can be

resolved. The study was aimed to understand the employment trends and does not take into any

personal topics like finance, kids

future and entrepreneurship.

Why Indians Return

Various researches cite major reasons for returning Indians being

Family ties in India Upbringing and education of children in an Indian culture

In last few years, the third reason taking prominence is better career prospects in India. This has

been a u-turn from last few decades when Indian professionals visited Western Europe and US

to advance their careers. This transformation is also radical because lack of great career

opportunities has been one of the constraints for returning Indians for quite some time. The

change to a very large extent can be attributed to the tremendous growth that India has seen in

last decade in the sectors other than agriculture, textile and small manufacturing units.

Who is returning to India?

Immigration S tatus of R eturning Indians in 2008

O ther

3%GC -> US C

7%

GC

20%

H1

US C

43%

Source: R2IClubForums.com


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The graph above shows that a majority of Indians returning are either US citizen or permanent

residents (green card holders) of US. This could be explained due to the fact that returning

Indians want to keep the option to go back to US open. The permanent residency and citizenship

can take anywhere from 7 to 10 years, it is safe to assume that most of the returnees are in

middle management positions in their career.

How long did returning Indians stay in the US?

How long did they s tay in US /C anada?

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Ye ars in US /C anada

Frequency

73% be twee n 7-13 years

11% less than 7 years

16% greater than 13 years

n = 170

Median = Mode = 10 yrs

Mean = 10.2 yrs


The median number of years that Indians spent in US before returning is 10 years with 7 to 13

years covering 73% of the population. This data is in line with residency status and points

towards that most of the returning Indians are either in Middle or middle to senior managementwhen they plan to return back

Which states do the returning Indians belong to?

Which S tate do they c urrently live in?

O thers

18%

F L

3%

NC

3%

P A

3%

W A

4%

GA

5%

IL

5%DC ,VA

6%T X

7%

NY, NJ , C T

15%

C A

31%



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The data for returning Indians show that majority of them are returning from west and east

coast. This data is very much in line with the data of residing Indians, only exception being that

the percentage of returning Indians is higher from California. A large population of Californian

Indians works within IT industry, so it is safe to assume that returning Indians constitute high

proportion of IT workers.

Which city retuning Indians prefer to settle in?

Which C ity are they moving to?

O thers

8%

Gurgaon

2%

Delhi

4%

Mumbai

12%

Pune

14%

C hennai

Hyderabad

22%

Bangalore

23%


Bangalore has housed the highest percentage of returning Indians with 23% of choosing to

return to Bangalore followed closely by Hyderabad. Bigger cities like Delhi and Mumbai are

dwarfed by Pune and Chennai and it can be attributed to fact that majority of returning Indians

are looking for jobs in IT sector where Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune have been growing very

fast.

Indian Growth Story

Indian economy is still mainly rural and lots of small and medium sized enterprises contribute to

GDP such as textile, leather and agriculture. But in the last decade, the focus has shifted to other

sectors. IT/ITES, Electronics, Automobile, Banking and Retail are some of the sectors which have

increased their share and will continue to grow in future as shown in the exhibit below.


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Source: Deloitte & Nasscom Study

The growth in these sectors has provided professionals with new career options that were notpossible before. A study of published jobs prove that IT continues to be the number one

industry with most number of published jobs, though other sectors are also growing. Banking &

Insurance and Construction are next two sectors for which the skilled labor demand is

consistently rising. Though published job indicator does not reveal all the jobs in a sector, it is

still a useful indicator. As companies in a particular sector grows from micro to small to medium

and began to publish jobs instead of word of mouth hiring. So, it is no surprise that Construction

has moved up higher as companies in construction sector have grown in the size due to alliances

with foreign construction firms. Even with this overall growth, IT will continue to be the cog in

Indias development engine.

Source:Naukri.com


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The IT Story

In this decade, Indian IT sector has fueled unprecedented direct and indirect growth in Indian

economy. Not only, this has generated employment and enhanced innovation by means of

entrepreneurship, it has also improved various socio-economic factors such as corporate

governance and boost to countrys image globally.

This has also led R2I community to feel increasingly positive about the nations prospect,

especially in IT sector.

A quick comparison of skilled IT professionals required in US against the skilled workers in India

shows that the demand is very similar for these countries with some differences. Though US IT

industry seeks software developers, project managers and business analyst from India, it does

not seek Product Managers. This is due to the fact that Indian IT industry, although famous for

its services, still has nascent product development. On the other hand, there is a growing

demand for product related jobs such as Product Manager in India as multinational companies

move their manufacturing and design to India and see India.

Source:H1-B Database and Naukri.com


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An industry wise break up shows that Computer Scientific & Engineering is most common sector

that Indian Americans are employed into. This is in tandem with the data from Indian jobs and

confirms that IT related jobs are the most common jobs sought by Indian in US.

Source: Indian American Community Survey 2005

A demographic distribution of the Indian population displays that most of the Indians are settled

around coasts with 40% of population in California and Tri state area. The employers planning to

hire R2I may want to focus in these two areas in the beginning.

Challenges in returning back to India

1. Mismatch in expectations: The biggest challenge faced by Indians contemplating areturn back to India is the expectations mismatch. Expectation mismatch can be further

sub divided into salary and position sought. While salaries have grown at a very

handsome pace in India, the returning Indians generally have unrealistic expectations in

salary at their experience level. A big reason is that people convert their $ salaries into

rupees versus using a purchasing power parity approach.

2. Logistics issues: Not a lot of firms have staffing operations set up that can facilitatehiring of international candidates seamlessly. Time zone differences, scheduling issues,

lack of face time with candidates early on in the process are some of the hindering

factors which this study has identified as top issues faced by firms looking to hire

returning Indians.

3. Long placement cycle: Our research has concluded that the average timeframe of hiringan international candidate from start to finish (candidate joining the firm) can take up to

a minimum of 3 months. Setting up international interviews, offer formalization, visa


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issues, relocation problems are some the most commonly cited concerns of both the

candidates and the hiring firms.

4. Lack of planning: One of the most under rated yet important reasons identified by thisstudy is the lack of a plan to plan your return to India. Going back to India is perhaps the

biggest professional decision of your life and most of the people have not put much

thought around it. What will be the right time, right place to settle, how much do I need

to save, which career level should I be targeting are some critical elements of the return

to India plan which need to be hashed out in detail months if not years before your

anticipated return timeframe.

How can these issues be resolved?

1. Personalized placement services firms: Imagine if you had trusted adviser who youcould turn to when looking to move back to India. Niche placement firms can bring in a

whole new level of personalization and help non resident Indians make a successful

transition back to India. Not only they can provide best fit jobs, they can manage a

candidates expectations, hand hold the candidate through the process and provide

expert advice and guidance around the issues outlined above.

2. Better information to make informed decisions: There is no trusted source where nonresident Indians can go and get their questions answered about potential concerns they

may have. They generally rely on family or friends or internet forums which may or may

not be able to give them an accurate picture of whats happening on the ground. This

study identified the lack of professional social network where people can exchange

ideas, set up their own forums, network with likeminded people, look for jobs and seek

advice all in one place.

3. Planning well in advance: The return to India planning has to begin 12-18 monthsbefore your anticipated return date. This will give you adequate time to explore all

options carefully, and help you wind down your person and professional commitments

at your current country of residence.

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