'India will witness reverse brain drain by 2020'

MUMBAI, INDIA: Business research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan said that the world will witness reverse brain drain, wherein the vast vacancies for CXOs in countries like India will be filled not only by returning Indians, but also by Americans and Europeans seeking better prospects.

Women empowerment will reach new heights

The company also finds in its research report - World’s Top Global Mega Trends to 2020 and Implications to Business, Society and Cultures - that women empowerment will reach new heights, with one in three workers being a woman and up to 40 per cent of boardrooms in some nations comprising women.

According to the analysis, sustainability was one of the major mega trends that shaped human, organization and government behavior in the last decade.

The study forecasts health, wellness and well-being with a much wider definition than mere healthcare, which will include body, mind and soul as the most important factor of discussion and differentiation in this decade.

Frost & Sullivan partner, Sarwant Singh, says, “Frost & Sullivan defines Mega Trends as global, sustained and macroeconomic forces of development that impact business, economy, cultures, careers and personal lives, thereby defining our future world and its increasing pace of change.”

He adds that the unique feature of this Visionary Innovation Research Program compared to other predictive programs out there lies in its ability to not only identify and evaluate emerging mega trends, but to also to translate those opportunities to everyday business and personal life — the macro to micro approach.

The research also says that there will be many interesting mega trends to watch out for.

First, future urbanization will drive integration of core city centers or downtowns with suburbs and satellite cities, resulting in expanding boundaries from the current average of 40 km to around 64 km.

The world will witness the emergence of 30 mega-cities, 15 mega-regions and at least 10 mega-corridors with over 20 million people by 2020.

Urbanization will lead to new hub and spoke business models for healthcare, logistics, retailing and many other functions, forcing organizations to re-think their urban business model.

Secondly, e-mobility will redefine personal mobility in the future. Over 40 million electric vehicles, including electric pedal cycles, scooters, four-wheelers and buses will be sold annually around the globe in 2020.

The next level of social networking will focus on geographic services and capabilities such as geo-coding and geo-tagging to enable additional social dynamics.

User-submitted data with profiles and interests will be matched with location-based services to connect and co-ordinate with surrounding people or events. This type of geo-networking will drive markets, businesses and individuals to interact, advertise and promote in real time.

Another trend identified by Frost & Sullivan is Innovating to Zero. This trend examines a world of zero emissions, zero accidents, zero fatalities, zero defects, zero breaches of security and carbon-neutral factories.