In Canada, one out of every 10 practicing physicians has their roots in India.
The British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin estimates that about half the population of Britain is being treated by about 40,000 Indian doctors.
In America, there are more than more than 50,000 physicians and about 15,000 medical students/residents of Indian heritage in the country.  Almost 10%-12% of medical students entering US schools are of Indian origin.   
About 20 per cent of doctors working in Australia have received their basic education and training in India.
These statistics underline the fact that India is the world’s biggest exporter of doctors with an overseas
workforce equal to almost 10 percent of the physicians in India.
But a changing political and policy environment in India is raising new questions about what might be done to keep more of India’s physicians at home and most importantly what can be done to bring them back.
The focus to is to reverse the brain Dr.ain and fix India’s shortage of about 600,000 doctors, one million nurses, 200,000 dental surgeons and large numbers of paramedical staff.
Recently, the Medical Council of India (MCI) amended its regulations to open the floodgates for hunDr.eds of non-resident Indian (NRI) doctors to come back to their roots.
MCI chairman Dr.. Ketan Desai said the council has eased the cross-over rules and has set a target of bringing back 5,000 Indian doctors, including teachers, settled in US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
MCI has removed the main bottleneck by recognising the postgraduate and other degrees of these specific countries where health facilities are supposedly best in the world and the education was done in English medium.
They have the choice of coming back to teach in a private or government college as well as work in a private or government hospital. Also, they can set up their own medical colleges and hospitals. Indian doctors in these countries are the richest segment even among NRIs.
While some of them may be wanting to come back because of recession, there are others who have made plenty of money and are not looking to come back to India to make more money.
“There is a large segment who wants to serve their homeland,’’ said Dr. Desai, who is based in Ahmedabad.
Apart from accepting foreign degrees, the MCI has made special provision so that foreign experience is also counted. For example, if there is a professor of medicine in a US university, with the required number of years of experience to become one in India, he can be hired as a professor by any medical college in India.
This will bring about a huge change not only in the cities but also in the countryside, if the doctors returning home really go deeper into their roots. Besides, MCI also sees the possibility of groups of NRI doctors coming back and pooling in their resources to build hospitals and medical colleges.
“This exercise will infuse competition in the private sector and be good for the overall health infrastructure in the long run. Imagine if we have two professors in cardiac surgery coming back to Ahmedabad, which has only two or three cardiac surgeons right now, so many more cardiac surgeons will be readied in the next ten years,’’ the MCI chief said.
For marketing the concept, MCI has teamed up with the Indian Medical Association, Association of American Physicians of India and British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin to host an event in New Delhi on next January 2-4.
The efforts to lure Indian doctors back home are already showing some dividends.
Ramesh Mehta, president of the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO) said about half the population of Britain was being treated by Indian doctors.
“There are about 40,000 Indian physicians in National Health Service and Indians constitute more than one third of all physicians in the UK. We are very keen to do our best for India and willing to volunteer time and expertise to make India a robust nation,” Mehta said.
One report in the UK said over 5,000 Indian doctors have returned home over the past three years.
Vayalar Ravi, India’s minister of Overseas Indian Affairs is leading the charge to bring the doctors home.
“Several Indian physicians who have made a mark abroad are willing to return and we should use their expertise given the shortage of doctors in India. Licensing issues should not come in the way of using their knowledge,” Ravi said at the Indo-U.S. Healthcare Summit organized by the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) recently.
The AAPI has a constituency of 46,000 physicians and almost 15,000 medical students and residents.
Emphasizing that there is a shortage of physicians in rural areas lacking the latest diagnostic and treatment procedures, Ravi said: “By granting permission to overseas Indian doctors to practise in the country, we will not only get the best brains but also committed physicians whose only goal is to serve and not make money.”
“Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is keen on setting up a knowledge bank to draw the expertise of people of Indian origin and physicians as they could play a key role in knowledge transfer,” he said.
While money and the chance to help better the homeland is a powerful magnet, analysts warned
returning is often not easy, even for those with a strong sense of motivation.
Medscape on its website stated that  although the income of returned physicians might be substantial, adjustment to life in India can be difficult for families.
Professional life requires readjustment as well.
“Everybody with a laparoscope wants to take out every appendix and gall bladder they see,” a successful, British-trained transplant surgeon was quoted as saying.
“You have to compete and market yourself.”
The Indo-British surgeon also cited omnipresent “civil corruption,” the absence of good regulation of hospitals, the lack of credentialing, and the generally “uncontrolled and uncoordinated health care system” as problems for him and others who trained in the West.