Rumble of Thoughts: The Omnipresent Indians

Sunday, February 12, 2017

The Omnipresent Indians

Yes..they are everywhere!

Recently a tweet from Sushma Swaraj made me look up Togo, one of Africa’s smallest country.

She tweeted:

The crew, who are employees of a Merchant Navy firm, had set sail for South Africa on October, 2013 from Mumbai. While returning in the month of July, 2014, theirship got stranded in Nigeria and the entire crew was arrested for violating laws of international waters

But if you thought Togo did not have any Indians then you are mistaken. In fact, "The republic of Togo in western Africa has bestowed its highest civilian award to an Indian national, Chander Verma, the country’s former honorary consul in India"

Even Togo has a small Indian community of about 250-300 people out of a population of 6.6 million.

Anyway, this is not about Togo but about the fact that Indiansfrom all walks of society have migrated to all parts of the world since ages. It is heartening to note that wherever they have gone they have ended up as assets and seldom as liabilities. People become a liability when they fail to adjust to a new culture/environment, have criminal tendencies and have nothing much to offer from their side unless they are trained and only if they can be. Generally Indians had one more advantage: education. This became more evident to me after Trump's ascension to the throne (yea..it looks so!) and that brings me to the country where Indians love to go or pray very hard to go. I think it is America that has brought the best out of Indians?

If you look at statistics, Indian immigrants stand third in number, after Mexico and China in US and they are the most educated.

Indians who are having less than high school education is only 6% while those with a Bachelor Degree or higher is 78.7%.

Their English language skills is also next best to the native English speakers.

How else are Indians faring in US?

With 14 entrepreneurs on the list, India was the leading country of origin for the immigrant founders of billion dollar companies (Unicorn)

If you want to know more about the Most Powerful Indian-Origin CEOs in the United States

And guess which University is as good as those in US?

Unicorn Nursery: Outside the U.S., India’s IIT Produces the Most Billion-Dollar Startup Founders”

Hence it is clear that Indians have the right education and skills but yet needs America to help them win. So what could be some of the reasons?

“The quality of life in the US is much better than in India. The biggest benefit of this move has been financial"

“I always wanted to travel alone, but back in India, I could not do it because I did not feel safe. But here in the US, I go on a solo trip almost every other month,”

But....

“I could move back to India in a heartbeat if I get to do the same kind of work that I am doing here,” Kumar of Cognizant said.

Now that Trump may tighten/reduce H-1B visas, will India retain some of them? Will India produce Unicorns in India itself?