Stardate 20010719.1305 (On Screen): Brain drain is a real phenomenon, and it is true that trained and talented people are moving from Third World nations to First World nations (especially the US). It's a competitive world, and you bid for the best people. The US not only offers the highest standard of living in the world but a lot of other benefits as well, and a lot of people would like to live here. Given a choice between making low salary in India and high salary in the US, it's not at all surprising that engineers will make the traumatic decision to leave home. And of course, for a person stuck in a low caste, coming to the US is is going to be an intensely liberating experience.
Ultimately, the only way to prevent this is going to be to compete. If you want to keep your engineers, you're going to have to provide them a standard of living comparable to what they'd get in the US, and comparable living conditions. Eliminate corruption, decrease crime, generally raise the standard of living, and they'll stay home.
Unfortunately, there's a boot-strap problem here, because those countries need those engineers in order to make those changes, but until they make those changes the engineers will leave. Fortunately, not all of them will, and some will come back after a few years overseas, and that's what India and countries like it will have to use to solve this problem. What isn't going to work is ridicule and guilt-trips. The best and brightest will stay home because they want to, not because you shame them into it. (discuss)
