Reversing India's brain drain

	GALLERY

From James Hattori
CNNdotCOM Correspondent

MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- In a dingy building on the campus of one of the Indian Institutes of Technology, eager students hope to launch the next dot-com phenomenon -- a site called Righthalf.com.

The site promises to give Web surfers a forum for posting their own ideas and expressions, get feedback, and review the postings of others.

In between classes, cups of coffee and the occasional nap ("the sleeping bag is the most-used thing around here," said one team member), the 14 young men here dare to dream they can start up a successful Web company.

"As a dream, what we want to build is a sustainable company, rather than make fast money," said Kashyap Deorah, a member of the Righthalf.com team.

Most are in their early 20s, and many are in the final year of a four-year program. Their project is among the first in a new incubation program at Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai (the city formerly known as Bombay).

"The incubator is a concept where we want to promote the ideas of our students and help them in converting them into products," said N.L. Sarda, a faculty member of the IIT Bombay Computer Science and Engineering Department.

The incubator, and the institute itself, are signs of India's investment in its national brainpower. It's an investment that sometimes has paid off more for Western companies than at home.

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For evidence of the contribution of code-writers and engineers from India, look no farther than the average computer desktop. Many of the most popular software applications in use today, from Netscape to Microsoft's Hotmail, were written all or in part by Indian coders.

But with all the "IITians," as they're commonly called, and other bright minds leaving India over the past few decades, many Indians worry about suffering a brain drain.

The Indian Institutes of Technology were founded soon after India gained independence from Britain in 1947. The early leaders wanted to train engineers and scientists to build infrastructure for the young country.

Half a century later, there are six IIT campuses in cities all around India. Getting into one isn't easy.

The IITs admit only about 2,000 of the more than 100,000 students who take the nationwide entrance exam each year. The percentage of students admitted is much lower than at the best schools in the United States, including Harvard and Stanford.

And many of the top 200 scorers are the ones who opt for computer science.

Indians believe their culture, language and education system create students naturally suited to excel in areas like math and computer code writing.

"The Indian mind is philosophical, free thinking," said Kanwal Rekhi, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and IIT alum. "Indians are mathematicians -- you know, mathematics is part of the daily life."

The Indian reputation for mathematics, combined with an English-speaking population, has prompted many companies in the West to lure away some of India's best and brightest.

The IITs boast several alumni who, like Rekhi, have become major players in Western firms. Among them: the president and CEO of US Airways and the co-founder of Sun Microsystems.

The reversal of India's brain drain, says IIT benefactor Kanwal Rekhi, can be attributed to the impossibility of taking "India out of Indians"

Graduate schools in the states heavily recruit the IITians, as they're commonly called.

But now, there are signs the brain drain is reversing. Those who established themselves in the United States, built contacts and earned big money are looking homeward.

"They're bringing back the money and they're bringing back the business contacts," said Dewang Mehta, president of NASSCOM, a New Delhi-based software lobby group. "It's fantastic."

Since selling his company Excelan to Novell for $200 million, Rekhi has fostered other startup companies. He's now the president of a non-profit called TIE, whose original mission was to foster entrepreneurship and help Indian entrepreneurs become part of the American mainstream. Now, Rekhi says, that mission is changing as he and his colleagues look homeward.

"You can take Indians out of India and bring them to any place, but what you cannot do is take India out of Indians," Rekhi said. "You still have that sense of belonging, that sense of roots."

The speed and access of the Internet are now making it possible for entrepreneurs to thrive in India without having to come to the West.

"People talk about the Internet breaking geographical boundaries, so we are out to find out if that's the case or not," said Anshuman Bapna, an IIT student and member of the Righhalf.com team. "We're actually trying to tap into the global market while living in India."

For the guys at Righthalf.com, the boundless possibilities of the Web -- and a little support from the other side of the globe -- are making the dream of a future IPO possible.

"That will be two, two-and-a-half years down the line," Kashyap said. "But I'm sure you will see us on NASDAQ."

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