Return of the professionals to Bihar

Patna, Dec. 19: With improved law and order, Bihar is no more an outcast for professionals. Returning home to start a career afresh has become a trend in the state.

Sample this: Chhapra’s Shashank Kumar passed out from IIT, Delhi, in 2008. He worked for more than two years in Gurgaon. His pay package was Rs 10 lakh per annum. But he quit his lucrative job early this year and returned to the state to pursue a career that would be self-satisfying.

Shashank is working on an agriculture project aimed at increasing the revenue of farmers through farming and non-farming activities in Vaishali.

The techie told The Telegraph: “Just pay packages don’t matter. Self-satisfaction is important, too. There is always a sense of satisfaction after doing something for your home state.”

Shashank is not alone. Abhishekh Kumar, another MBA from Delhi, quit his job in a consultancy firm in the national capital and opted for entrepreneurship in Bihar. He has started an on-wheel low-cost health drink stall. He intends to make a chain of such stalls.

“You will get everything at my stall except alcohol,” he said, pointing out that he had approached the Chandragupta Institute of Management, Patna (CIMP), for recruiting two MBAs from the institute next year.

“I am here to create jobs,” he said with confidence.

Another MBA from Dehradun, Abhiranjan Kumar, has also quit his job in a multinational company to start an industry here. So has Hussain Zamal, a BTech from Jamia Millia Islamia University.

P.K. Sinha, the president of the Patna chapter of TiE, an international network that creates opportunities for entrepreneurs, said: “A reverse brain drain is taking place in Bihar now. Bihari students who have got exposure outside are willing to come back home and work here. I have come across a large number of highly qualified Biharis who want to return to their home state if they are given the right opportunity.”

Sinha said: “If the government lends a little support in skill development, more opportunities will be generated here, especially in the IT sector. Bihar has a large trained human resource for the IT industry.”

Sinha is currently guiding around 10 youngsters, including Shashank and Zamal, to execute their schemes successfully.

In the mid-80s, the standard of education in the state collapsed. Students were forced to go to other states for higher education. Most of them settled down in Delhi, Mumbai and other metros because of the opportunities available there.

As the law and order nosedived, professionals hardly bothered to return to their home state to work. But with the social tension easing out and the law and order situation improving, the idea of doing something at home has resurfaced among bright students studying away from home.

“Bihar is a virgin state and we can use the situation to our advantage,” said an IITian keen to be an entrepreneur in Bihar.

The reverse brain drain trend started in the second half of this decade.

With the NDA-II government making its intention to appoint more engineers, doctors and lecturers clear, more professionals settled outside the state are expected to return home.