Thriving economy lures NRIs back to India

BANGALORE: It is finally official. The anecdotal reports of a growing influx of US returnees joining India's thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem is borne out by the findings of a joint research report from Duke University, University of Berkeley and the Kauffman Foundation for Entrepreneurship in the USA, released on Thursday. Greater economic opportunity in the home countries drew these immigrants back with 60% of those polled saying it was India's thriving economy that lured them back to start new ventures. Over half of the returnees have set up IT based start-ups with nearly 31% of these companies situated in Bangalore. "This city offers a soft landing for returnees with a ready talent pool to man new ventures, a highly developed ecosystem for fund raising and a cosmopolitan culture," says Anand Daniel, Principal at global venture fund, Accel Partners , who returned to India in 2010 drawn by the rising economy and greater career opportunities. The six-month survey conducted by graduate students at the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University ended in March 2011. The 153 Indian respondents with an average age of 37 were picked through business networking site LinkedIn and were all running start-up ventures that were at least a year old in India. Prior to relocating here they would have spent a minimum of a year studying or working in the US. "Skilled immigrants are voting with their feet, they are returning home to countries like India and China. and they are learning to innovate just as Silicon Valley does. Some call this a 'brain drain' others say it is 'brain circulation'," says Vivek Wadhwa, director of Research, Centre for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialisation, Duke University, who has been tracking this growing trend since 2008. "The grass is indeed greener in India and China for returnee entrepreneurs," he added. Over half the respondents said they returned to start new businesses due to the upbeat mood in the Indian economy with 60% citing a ready talent pool as one of the biggest factors that drew them back. "I returned to India to head the engineering team of product company Trilogy , went onto set up my own venture VM Logix that I subsequently sold to another large technology firm Citrix Systems ," says Ravi Gururaj who now heads engineering at Citrix Systems. Buoyed by this vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem he is now preparing to set up a start-up accelerator programme to kickstart more new ventures.