Context:

• The Government of India is considering a new scheme to attract “star faculty” and researchers of Indian origin back to the country.
• This comes at a time when the US academic environment is witnessing rising political interference, prompting globally mobile scholars to explore more stable and autonomous research ecosystems.
• The initiative aims to strengthen India’s R&D ecosystem, boost STEM capacity, and enhance India’s position as a global knowledge economy.

Need for the Scheme:

• Emerging global opportunity:
  • Increasing political intervention, threats to university autonomy and academic freedom in the US.
  • Global academic talent actively seeking stable and supportive research environments.
• Addressing India’s long-standing “Brain Drain”:
  • Chronic outflow of Indian-origin scientists, especially in STEM.
  • Critical need to strengthen national innovation capacity and build world-class research institutions.
• Strategic focus areas: Initial emphasis on priority STEM sectors essential for national capability building.

Key Features of the Proposed Scheme:

• Set-up grant: Substantial financial assistance for star faculty to build labs, teams, and research ecosystems in premier institutions. Supports operational autonomy and smoother onboarding.
• Creating a seamless experience: Returning academics require far more than monetary incentives—intellectual freedom, cultural alignment, and ease of doing research are crucial.

Challenges:

• Salary and compensation gaps:
  • Indian full professors earn approximately $40,000/year, significantly lower than the US ($130,000–$200,000/year) and China (~$100,000/year).
  • India, unlikely to match global salary benchmarks, must compensate with intellectual, cultural and research ecosystem returns.
• Administrative and structural barriers:
  • Bureaucratic hurdles in logistics, procurement, funding flows, recruitment.
  • Previous programmes (e.g., VAJRA Faculty Programme) suffered from procedural delays, funding uncertainty, and fragmented short-term engagement mechanisms.
• Lack of institutional preparedness:
  • Many public institutions lack experience in onboarding international faculty.
  • Persistent hierarchical structures, limited interdisciplinary collaboration, and inadequate academic freedom.
• Personal and social ecosystem gaps: Challenges in spousal employment, housing, schooling for children, and lack of well-defined tenure-track pathways.
• Competition from other countries: India must undertake deeper reforms to stay competitive with -
  • Europe - Strengthening academic freedom
  • China - Aggressive recruitment and high funding
  • Taiwan - Rapid internationalisation of universities
• Limited scope of proposed institutions: Reports suggest the scheme may be confined to a small set of public research institutes, ignoring the rising research capacity of Central-State-Private universities.

Institutional Reforms Needed:

• Administrative autonomy and red carpet mandate: Ensure seamless procurement, funding flows, hiring processes, lab setup. Use expanded autonomy for non-government procurement.
• Clear tenure-track and career security: Move beyond fragmented fellowship-type programs. Establish explicit tenure-track conversion pathways.
• Strong protection of academic freedom: High-level government assurance of autonomy, non-interference, freedom from excessive monitoring, essential to attract global researchers.
• Intellectual Property (IP) clarity: Standardised and clear IP ownership policies, especially for scientific research.
• Building a supportive social ecosystem: Institutional support for spousal employment, housing facilities, quality schooling.
• Cultural transformation: Shift from rigid hierarchies to interdisciplinary collaboration; merit-based advancement; open, critical inquiry; and integration of international pedagogic practices.
• Broadening institutional participation: Include capable central, state, and private universities to maximise the scheme’s impact.

Conclusion:

• The proposal to repatriate Indian-origin star faculty is a timely intervention that aligns with India’s ambition to become a global research and innovation hub.
• However, success will depend not on grants alone but on the depth of structural, administrative, and cultural reforms undertaken by India’s premier institutions.
• If implemented holistically, the initiative could reverse the country’s brain drain, catalyse a world-class research ecosystem, and position India as a global leader in knowledge production.
• The moment is strategic, and India must seize it.