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Brain drain costs India $2 billion a year: UN

India loses $2 billion a year in resources through the brain drain of 100,000 skilled computer professionals to the US alone, according to a UN report released on Tuesday.

"For instance, 100,000 Indian professionals a year are expected to take visas recently issued by the US - an estimated resource loss for India of $2 billion," the Human Development Report said.

"Of the 81,000 US visas approved between October 1999 and 2000, 40 per cent were for individuals from India and more than half were computer related occupations, and a sixth for sciences and engineering," said the report.

"Many countries in Asia were experiencing a crippling brain drain of trained professionals who they had spent large amounts of money educating".

The report said employment in India's software industry was projected to rise from 180,000 in 1998 to 2.2 million in 2008.

"By providing IT education - India's English-language technical colleges turn out over 73,000 graduates a year - and by investing in infrastructure the government has ensured India's place in the new economy."

"The Indians in Silicon Valley are an important part of Bangalore's success story," it says, adding that the 'diasporas', such as Indian computer professionals in Silicon Valley in the US, could enhance the reputation of their country of origin.

It said the link would help India grab the lion's share of the $100-billion global outsourcing market.

The report said that the developing countries follow the US model where individuals are taxed on the basis of nationality rather than residency to recoup losses suffered as a result of brain drain.

Alternatively, they could require each student to take loan equivalent to the subsidy that would have to be repaid if the student left the country, it says.

Quoting India's example, the report says: "Given the right conditions, including openness for new investments and new ideas, the home countries can recapture some of what they have lost."

It estimates average cost of providing education to each professional at $15,000-$20,000, which means a total of around $2 billion per year.

But it also notes that contribution from Indians in Silicon Valley and other technology hubs helped raise endowments of some of India's universities.

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