The government is committed to not only retain the students passing out of the premier educational institutions in the country but also attract NRIs back, the Lok Sabha was informed on Monday.

Union Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar made the statement in response to a written question about whether the government has studied the root cause of the brain drain phenomena.

"The government is committed to not only retain the students passing out of the premier educational institutions in the country, but also attract the non-resident Indians back to the country. Under the Prime Minister's Research Fellowship scheme, attractive fellowship is offered to selected students to pursue their PhD in Indian universities and institutions.

"The government has sanctioned establishment of Research Parks at IITs- Madras, Bombay, Kharagpur, Kanpur, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Gandhinagar and IISc Bangalore to augment the research ecosystem in the country to enable the students to pursue their R and D interests in India, through innovative research. Incubation Centres (IC) at educational institutions seek to nurture technology and knowledge based ventures through their start-up phase by providing the necessary support to help entrepreneurs survive in the competitive market and reach a stage where they can scale-up their ventures further," he added.

Sarkar said the Ministry had also launched Global Initiative for Academic Network (GIAN) which seeks to tap the talent pool of scientists and entrepreneurs from abroad, including those of Indian origin, to augment the country's existing academic resources.