Indian born Gita Gopinath is the first woman chief economist to be appointed to the International Monetary fund (IMF). She is the second person to be chosen to the post after former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Raghuram Rajan. Meanwhile, we have seen Sunder Pichai (Google CEO), Satya Nadella (Microsoft CEO), Indra Nooyi (former CEO of PepsiCo), who have made India proud. But if they had continued to study in India, would they have accomplished the same? Were they brain drained?

Brain Drain is the emigration of highly trained or intelligent people from a particular country. Taking Gita Gopinath as an example, one can see how the Kolkata born, who was educated in Mysuru and Delhi, moved to the US to complete her master's degree in economics (University of Washington in 1996). Then, she went on to complete her PhD at Princeton University.

Gita Gopinath is the John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and of Economics at Harvard University. Gita is also the co-director of the International Finance and Macroeconomics program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, a member of the economic advisory panel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The highest post India could offer Gita was economic advisor to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, which she is going to step down from after being appointed to the IMF.

At the onset, it looks like foreign countries can offer better opportunities to the highly skilled Indians.

India constitutes 9,50,000 of Asia’s total 2.96 million immigrant scientists and engineers. From 2003 to 2013, there has been an increase of 85% of those who migrated from India. This means, especially those in skilled jobs including engineers and scientists from India, are flying off to foreign countries for job opportunities.

It is not just because of the standard of education provided in India, but the fact that even highly skilled have less chance of getting a high-paying job at a reputed company in India.

A survey states that in India 60% remain unemployed soon after completing their course, whereas only 4% make it to their dream job. 

Another factor is that high amount of tax to be paid for the salary is also de-motivating Indians to take up jobs in India. To top it, even salary for the same job abroad is much higher than in India. When compared to rupee, the value of dollar is much higher. This is also one of the areas to be improved when it comes to the Indian job sector. 

Many people migrate to foreign countries, especially to Western countries for better lifestyle that also comes with advanced technology. 

The statistics prove that there has been a 225% increase in the number of people choosing the US as the place for education, to work or settle permanently. The number has increased from 1,37,230 to 4,45,281 since 1999 to 2015.

The data of the labour bureau of job creation gives out an alarming number with job creation falling to 1.35 lakh in 2015 from 12.56 lakh in 2009.

Thus there is an urgent need to have a serious re-look at the education system of India, especially in the skilled education. This has to parallel with expansion of job markets and better reward for employees and improvement in work conditions.