NRIs find home sweeter than salary

NEW DELHI: Non-resident Indians are taking a hit in their pay packages, as much as 25% in many cases, in their eagerness and perhaps, even desperation to get back home. The eagerness could well be judged by the fact that for Transearch, a global executive search firm, e-mails for top postings in India is growing at a rate of 60-70% per month.

Apart from the fact that India has a cost advantage and offers cheaper goods and services, softer issues like caring for parents, providing the kids an exposure to their own culture is leading these NRI expats to head back home. What has helped is the fact that salaries in India have also gone up considerably.

Says Uday Chawla, managing partner, Transearch India, “It’s the best time to be working in India. Expats, especially NRIs find it more beneficial to come back to a familiar but an improved environment. So, a reduction in pay packages up to 25% doesn’t bother them much.” Agrees R Suresh, MD, Stanton Chase India, “It’s true that people of the Indian diaspora, who went abroad for top jobs some years back, want to return to India and add the growth story to their CVs, besides availing of the benefits of a developing economy.”

Some of the top job grabbers who moved in during the last one year to six months include Amitava Roy, president, Symphony Services; Vivek Mansingh, country manager, product group, Dell India; Abhay Dubey, MD, Verismo Network; Nagesh Pabbysetty, general manager, engineering and product innovation, Microsoft India; Aquil Busrai, head, HR, IBM, though not necessarily with a pay cut. Besides there are others such as Pallav Sinha, head of wealth management and RL Prasad, head of credit cards, both from Standard Chartered, who have moved back recently. Sources say the trend is now gathering pace.

Though it is debatable whether each and every individual coming back to India, necessarily takes a pay cut, but they are definitely open to it, say head-hunters. Experts feel the NRI traffic has significantly increased in the last one year and those waiting to return to their homeland, don’t mind pay cuts.

It’s a quid pro quo thing as they balance material losses with softer gains. Also, as salary gaps of top brasses in firms in India and elsewhere have narrowed down, it’s pinching less on their pockets. The trend is particularly visible in sectors like IT, ITES and financial services feel head-hunters.

K Sudarshan, managing partner, EMA Partners International, India, explains, “The trend is particularly relevant to IT, ITES, financial services than manufacturing. This includes the chunk that went abroad in the last 10 years and is coming back to the country through internal transfers. While the crowd that headed towards US or UK in the 60s and 70s and did their MS there, are reluctant for such a change.”