The technology sector is facing dark days. Giants like Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Twitter have sent home employees in thousands. It is estimated that about 120,000 technologists have been affected world-wide. The Indian community seems to be worst hit. Several of them on a H1b visa in the USA are left in a limbo, as they have to find the next job within 60 days to stay back. With very less guidance from the organisations, it is quite a plight that they are going through. LinkedIn, a professional networking platform is flooded with these layoff posts and appeals for a new job.
The indian scenario
This overseas trend had started earlier in India. Companies in the edtech and e-commerce segments like Ola, Blinkit, BYJU’s, Unacademy, Vedantu, among others have shown door to nearly 12,000. With the period ahead termed as ‘Funding Winter’, when usually it is quite difficult to raise funding, industry experts expect this number to increase to at least 50,000. If the overseas Indian’s return back and join this pool, it would become a huge concern. But this challenge also opens a wide range of opportunity. A look at China would help us benefit from this crisis.
Returnees Propelled China’s growth
During the 2007-08 financial crisis, when world economies went through recession, several Chinese nationals were left in a similar situation where they had to return back. To involve these skilled professionals in the economy, China came up with a series of policies to develop the talent. Major ones include Thousand Talents Programme in 2008; Thousand Young Talents Programme in 2010; Thousand Foreign Experts Programme in 2011; Special Talent Zone in 2011 and the Ten Thousand Talent Plan in 2012. All these national level plans were supplemented by similar ones at provincial and municipality levels. These returnees played a pivotal role in globalising China, especially in the field of education, science, research, culture and health. The tremendous growth is a mark of success of these plans. Most returnees were abreast with international standards, development and technology, and it provided China an innovation thrust. Most of the enterprises started were in the technology sector and these companies functioned as a bridge between China and the international market. They elevated the sector to global standards paving way of several other sectors to follow suit.
India can benefit too
India can also benefit from such an approach. The overseas talent pool is indeed rich. All top corporates have an Indian in the C-Suite. The talents that would return back and in-house ones have similar capabilities. Acknowledging the situation, the government must create a pathway for these talents to settle in. Their knowledge and experience would add high value to India’s growth. They could bring in huge benefits but local conditions should be set to suit their preference. They should be guided and motivated to create a similar impact as in China.
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