In the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, foreign professionals declined job offers from Indian companies citing factors such as the local healthcare system, high pollution and safety. Indian companies wooing overseas talent for emerging sectors such as electric vehicles, battery, solar & renewable energy, and aviation in order to overcome a crunch of local manpower faced rejections, headhunters and company executives told Economic Times.

Search experts said the acceptance rate among overseas professionals is as low as 25% and it takes double the time to close a senior expat job vacancy, usually 5-6 months as compared to2-3 months to hire a local CXO-level position.

“India is not in the same league as other nations for expat preference. Even those who do accept job offers do a lot of due diligence before taking up job offers in India. The odds improve if the role has to be exceptionally rich or salary extremely attractive,” said Suresh Raina, partner at global leadership advisory firm Heidrick & Struggles, the report said.

Even smaller countries like Thailand attract more expats than India.

Top Indian conglomerates such as Mahindra and Tata Motors which have global research & development centres are setting up global satellite units so that expats can travel to India whenever required.

“It makes little sense to hire expats in our Indian operations and pay top dollars as we have built a robust internal talent pipeline here,” the chief human resources officer (CHRO) of a leading automobile company, which had several expats in senior leadership roles till a few years ago, told ET on condition of anonymity.

Certain Indian airlines looking to expand footprint in international markets are also facing dearth of talent across functions which can deliver this scale while competing with global behemoths.

Many expats choose not to bring families due to weather, school system and air quality challenges and even healthcare systems, according to aviation consultants.