Jitu Major returned to his native India in 1995 after a PhD and postdoc in New York. But he was concerned that in India his career would be threatened by "obscurantist science, an ossified research set-up and cash-strapped institutes", he says. Yet after ten years at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, Major is happy to admit that he was wrong.
India's scientific reputation is not really one of innovation. Its inexpensive labour force compared with the West meant that the subcontinent became an outsourcing centre first in information technology and, more recently, in medicinal chemistry. These contracts with Western drug and IT companies have provided jobs for Indian scientists, albeit at the less glamorous end of the spectrum and governed from abroad. But there are now signs that India is ready to host its own scientific revolution (see India Outlook).
The many changes that are taking place within Indian science are doing a lot to lay Major's concerns to rest. Obscurantist science? Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore have consulted with 161 companies around the world, with three professors spinning out companies in the past five years. And in the same time the country has produced more than 200 papers in high-impact journals. Ossified equipment? The Centre for Genomic Application now has a supercomputer as fast as any at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Britain or at the Institute for Molecular Science in Japan.
These examples are all improvements that can help to lure expats back home. What is still missing is funding for basic research, higher salaries for university professors and a real postdoc scheme. Money from global pharmaceutical companies and foundations such as the Wellcome Trust are helping to bridge the gap. But greater investment from within the country will be necessary to see a flood of Indian expat scientists join Major in coming home.