More than the salary

The record-breaking placement offer of $193,000 (about Rs 86 lakh) from Barclays Capital, London, for a graduate from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) at Bangalore, is renewed affirmation of the global recognition of Indian talent. While the headlines have focused on the eye-popping salary on offer, the more substantive point is that it is part of a trend that has been gaining ground. Indeed, the hiring of Indian management graduates by international firms for global assignments has lost its novelty, and the focus now is on the number of people who get such offers, and the terms offered""because it is these that speak of emerging trends. This year, many of the entry-level foreign offers are at notches higher than in the past. This could be taken as being reflective of the growing recognition and acceptance of IIMs and other leading Indian management institutions""though none of them features as yet in any global listing of the leading business schools, for reasons that have more to do with the quality of academic research and less to do with the quality of students who pass out.

Indeed, the real story goes beyond the global hiring of Indian B-school graduates. The more important development is the establishing of a two-way process of internationalising education""though only a few institutions have so far been drawn into this. While some Indian educational institutions seek to establish an overseas presence, global management and other institutions of higher learning are looking for a base in India. IIM-Bangalore and the Mumbai-based SP Jain Institute of Management and Research are both establishing bases in Singapore. In turn, while Harvard Business School has set up a research centre in Mumbai, INSEAD of France has inked a pact to set up a research-cum-executive education centre in the country. At another level, Australian universities, which in recent years have started attracting increasing numbers of Indian students, are now looking for a range of tie-ups with Indian universities. For example, the Melbourne-based Monash University and Canberra-based Australian National University have taken the lead in doing research projects and other joint programmes with Indian universities. At another level, while the global online education major, U21 Global, wants to beef up its presence in India, it has also tied up with the NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning of IIM-Bangalore to set up a centre in Bangalore. This two-way exchange has been bolstered by the fact that while Indian students and faculty have traditionally had a significant presence in American universities, they are now spreading their presence across universities in Asia, Australia and Europe.

Nevertheless, even as a growing section of Indian students finds overseas placements, many of them are also opting to stay back in the country. The gradual opening up of the Indian economy, rapidly increasing talent needs in India, fatter pay scales of domestic companies which are now at par with international levels, and the increasing opportunities for entrepreneurship in India are all working to ensure that while Indian talent gains international recognition, many youngsters find the domestic environment more stimulating and promising. When the flow is in so many different directions, the overall pattern can only reflect positive trends.