NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on Thursday said India has overcome the problem of ‘brain drain’ and is drawing on the global ‘brain bank’ of people of Indian origin.
Speaking at the at the Hiren Mukherjee Memorial Lecture in the Parliament House.
Here prime minister said “Today we in India are experiencing the benefits of the reverse flow of income, investment and expertise from the global Indian Diaspora. The problem of ‘brain drain’ has been converted happily into the opportunity of “brain gain”. We are drawing on the global “brain bank” of people of Indian origin world wide”.
He said that Jagdish Bhagwati is one of the shining stars of that community of global Indians.
The Prime Minister said that Bhagwati was among the first to study the phenomenon of ‘brain drain’ and identify its benefits for the country.
Noting that Bhagwati was among the architects of the World Trade Organisation and continued to guide it, Singh said Bhagwati and his wife were pioneers among economists who questioned the efficacy of the licence-permit control raj.
In his remarks, Vice President Hamid Ansari, apparently referring to the ongoing pandemonium in Parliament, said that founding fathers took great pride in the effective working of Parliament.
"It is in the arena of public debate that one looks back with a sense of nostalgia to the initial years of our Republic," he said.
He said that Bhagwati has addressed the issue of societal inequalities and has argued that any discussion of inequality has to be in a social and political context and can not be an academic or statistical exercise.