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 India's IT industry has long been seen as a back-office backwater,
even by its own engineers who started moving abroad in their droves
in the 1970s. That is now changing.
The e-commerce sector, led by companies such as Flipkart and
Snapdeal, attracted more than $5 billion of investment last year,
Morgan Stanley says, compared with less than $2 billion in 2013.
That growth is fuelling the hunt for talent to drive the next stage
of expansion - for many, an initial public offering or a push into
overseas markets.
"The appetite for finding engineering talent ... is great," said
George Kaszacs of Silicon Valley-based headhunters Riviera Partners,
who helps Indian startups scout for potential hires.
The number of returnees is small, but they represent a sign of the
early emergence on the global stage of Indian upstarts. Indian
companies such as Snapdeal, Inmobi and Zomato each say they have
hired between a handful to as many as 20 people from Silicon Valley
in the past five years.
India's biggest e-commerce company, Flipkart, recently hired two
senior executives from Google Inc in California, both engineers of
Indian origin, for its headquarters in Bengaluru in southern India.
Flipkart did not disclose their pay, but headhunters say
remuneration packages can reach $1 million over 3-4 years.
Headhunter Kaszacs said several factors are drawing Indians back
home, including the chance to join a fast-growing start-up. Joining
bonuses, stock options and other perks were also helping.
The chance to live close to parents and other relatives is another
factor drawing Indian executives back home - an important
consideration in India's close knit family system.
For Tanmay Saksena, who heads online ordering at restaurant review
website Zomato, similarities between the Indian and Silicon Valley
start-up culture helped him decide to return after eight years away.
"Of course your base pay is not the main driver, it is equity and
you join a start-up because you think it will do well," Saksena
said.
Other executives moved for similar reasons, saying the chance to
work for a thriving start-up offset the challenges of everyday
living in India's chaotic cities.
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In return, companies are going all out to make settling back as easy
as can be.
InMobi, a mobile phone advertising platform, provides summer camps
for kids and meetings where spouses can socialize with one another.
It offers health insurance not just for employees and their spouse,
but their in-laws too, which Abhay Singhal says is a big hit.
"One thing that unfortunately India does not have great answers to
yet is the quality of living outside of work," Singhal, one of the
founders of the company, said.
"The professional still has his days to spend in the office but the
spouse and kids... that becomes a very big issue."
Snapdeal said in a couple of instances the company had even helped
spouses search for jobs.
"There will be systemic issues everywhere," Punit Soni, who joined
Flipkart from Google as its chief product officer, told Reuters in
March.
"I took up the job because it was the most interesting thing I could
do."
(This version of the story fixes the spelling in paragraph 8)
(Editing by Christopher Cushing and Neil Fullick)
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