I am currently pursuing my research in the area of artificial intelligence/deep neutral networks, which I believe is one of the key technologies to the next wave of industrialization and growth of the global economy.
In my research group, there are lots of incredibly smart Indian people in Cambridge who dedicate themselves to the research. I have to admit that they are much smarter and more talented than me, and I am sure that they have the ability to push the edge of the technology even further.
Indian people are smart, innovative, and insightful. Lots of the world’s top international companies have Indian CEOs and lots of university professors across the world are of Indian origin. If you look at the number of papers published in nature/science and computer science conferences, lots of the authors are also of Indian origin. Based on all this, India definitely has the ability and intelligence to develop itself into a technologically advanced nation.
Given that both India and China have a population of 1.4 billion, and assuming we treat the top 0.001% people as “extremely talented,” there are still 14,000 people for both countries who could have the intelligence to lead the technological advancement of the world. In this regard, India and China are not so different.
However, it is a matter of which country the Indian talents are contributing to. My Indian colleagues are all getting their permanent residencies or citizenships in the UK. Unfortunately, they don’t wish to go back to India and they are moving their families to the UK. This is common for Indians in the US, too.
The brain drain is the real problem of India: In order to develop faster, industrialization is key. I am sure PM Modi is fully aware of that in his “Make in India” campaign.
However, in order to really develop industrialization, we need to understand that the educated talents are the seeds, the domestic environment is the soil, government policies are the fertilizers, and the market/foreign investment is sunlight and water. Without the seed, we will never see industrialization progress. This is where India is most lagging behind.
What is China doing differently?
Ever since I was in Cambridge, I have seen countless numbers of delegation and recruitment groups organized by the Chinese government, coming here to seek talent.
For example, a delegation team from a city called Wenzhou in the Zhejiang province has recently visited Cambridge and Oxford. The deputy mayor of Wenzhou has gathered the CEO of 18 local companies from Wenzhou, two vice chancellors of Wenzhou University, three officials from Wenzhou business incubators/innovation centres, and four young entrepreneurs who recently started their company in Wenzhou.
The delegation team held a formal dinner that invited all the Chinese talents for free and advertised their policies in attracting Chinese Cambridge graduates. During the dinner, the deputy mayor, in his toast practically “begged” us to settle in Wenzhou after graduation.
So what is exactly the “talent policy” from the Wenzhou city?
If you are a PhD graduate from Cambridge University, if you decide to settle in Wenzhou, you will be granted:
- 1 million RMB ($160,000 is 10 million rupees) as setting-up funds from Wenzhou directly sent to you
- 1 million RMB fund to help buying a home
- A discounted housing price with no-interest mortgages
If you are a lead researcher from Cambridge University, and your publication is significant to the country’s interest and if you decided to settle in Wenzhou, you will be granted:
- 1 million RMB from the National 1000 Youth Talents Plan
- 1 million RMB from the Provincial Youth Talent Plan (Zhejiang province)
- 1 million RMB from the Wenzhou Youth Talent Plan
- 1 million RMB from one of the prefecture regions in Wenzhou
- 1 million RMB from one of the districts from the prefecture from Wenzhou
- Therefore in total, you will be granted 5 million RMB if you decided to settle in Wenzhou.
- If you have great start-up ideas, patents, technology, and want to set up a company in Wenzhou, you will be granted:
- 1 million RMB if the company is registered in Wenzhou
- 1 million RMB reserved for buying equipment and renting offices
- Discount rent for offices in the business incubators
- 2 million RMB in tax reduction for your company
- 1 million RMB in prize money if your company gains huge growth and promotes the Wenzhou economy
The Wenzhou government is especially interested if you are majoring in artificial intelligence, autonomous cars, new materials, block chains, cyber security, green energy, and smart cities. They have individual funds for those areas respectively.
This is only the tip of the iceberg. Each city has its own policies. Typically, the richer the city is, the more money you will be granted. The more companies registered, the more tax that city is able to collect.
Then the local city can use the money from its tax-payers and companies to attract more talent. And everything will form a positive cycle which is good for the economy.
The Chinese government also offers full scholarships for Chinese students who pursue studies at the University of Cambridge. The conditions of the scholarship are that you must return to work in China after graduation. I heard Singapore also has this kind of scholarship.
Will the mayors from Bengaluru, Pune, Ahmedabad, Surat etc travel to the world’s finest universities and ask those Indian graduates to come back to India? Currently I don’t see such events.
Is there any scholarship provided by the Indian government for Indian students who cannot afford to study abroad with the only pre-condition to return India for work after graduation? Currently, I am unaware of any.
I am going back to China once I complete my research in Cambridge. I will be contributing to China’s existing AI projects in the future. I will be receiving a higher salary in China than I do in the UK now, thanks to the talent plan of the Chinese government.
Janus Zhou is a researcher at University of Cambridge.
