Joining private companies for Biotech-Pharma R&D sector in India.
B. B. Goel
Sunday, 28 June 2009 17:18 UTC
It seems to be a problem for many PhD and postdocs to decide whether to join public research institutes or private ones. Once they decide and get suitable opportunity to join a private research institute the first problem they face is to determine how much they worth. In whole life they did research and never did self-evaluation from monetary point o view. One thing we must make clear that there is absolutely no rational and honest criteria for anything in a company. Two candidates having same academic achievements and background can have vastly different salary and parks. It mainly boils down to candidate’s own negotiation skill and showing symptoms of desperation to get a job (as perceived by the prospective employer). The first question they face during a HR interview (once they are selected as a potential candidate by scientific/research body of that institute) how much they except as salary. This is a very tricky question and very tough to answer, particularly for those who is looking a job for his/her first employment in a private organization. The general trend is to say, for example, “about 7 lakhs per annum”. By the time company asks this question, they have fairly good idea about the upper limit they can offer. If the asking salary, by the candidate is below the company limit (mostly it is) they accept after some usual (cosmetic) rhetoric (which also reduces the salary for the candidate) and pressure to join as early as possible as if the Company will stop functioning if the candidate does not join soon (which is mostly false but nonetheless very effective to put pressure on the candidate). Extra benefits depend on the difference between asking salary and company’s expected upper limit. Now the next and most widely used trap, the “cost-to-company” (CTC) concept. In academics we have no such concept and so when a company says that your CTC will be X lakhhs then we tend to think that is my net salary (without tax of course). So when you join and get your first salary, you get surprised. Before actual joining, it’s almost impossible to make the HR people admit, in writing, the actuall take-home salary (considering the all legitimate govt taxes and other minimum deductions, as per company law). After the first salary, the candidate start exploring why the actual take-home salary is so low. Now they start understanding the greatness of terms like “productivity linked incentive (PLI)”, “deduction under chapter VIA”, “choice pay” etc. It’ll be less stressful in future if the candidate accepts that PLI will never be given to his/her in some pretext or other. That amount varies depending on company, your negotiated CTC and many other factors. In general it varies from 7-15% of CTC. Actual calculation for PLI is deliberately kept very vague and complicated and with too many variables (which is beyond your own performance and control). It will be better to accept that you will never get that part of the salary. Now “choice pay” part, another tricky business. Before joining it seems that we will get all that part of your proposed CTC. But soon after joining you realize that it’s not the case. Financial benefits and other parks are very well defined in public institutes and we can get a fairly good idea about our actual take-home salary there.
Companies mainly think that once you join the company it will be very tough for you to change or to go back to US/Europe or other countries. They highly exploit that situation. Majority HR will insist that you join first and everything will be OK then. For an average postdoc in US, it’s very hard to waste about $ 10-15 K during relocation and initial settlement in any metro city in India. Financially many of them cannot afford to come back, even if they do not like to continue that job (although some do just that and that trend is increasing as well). Some out of compulsion and rest out of fear, many publicly praise their new job, exaggerate their salaries among his/her friends. Sometimes it’s very tough to get actual salary scale by talking to acquaintances and friends. Private employers just love that aspect. They encourage it (even sometimes in writing) so that candidates do not discuss their salaries and parks among themselves.
Now let’s come to intellectual property rights. Many of us wrongly think that whatever we accomplish in a private company belongs to the company. Probably it’s not right. It’s only the business and financial “right” that belongs to company but the company has the legal obligation to give the candidate due “academic” credit (e.g while filing patents). They almost force the candidate to sign a very lengthy document which most of the candidates will not read but sign, to avoid such complications and deprive the candidate his/her legal rights.
It seems that majority of the candidates working in Indian private companies in R&D will not get the opportunity to come back to basic research and academics after working in such private R&D sector in India. Firstly they will not be much productive so far research is concerned, in terms of publications and novel, usable patents. In other words they have to stick to same type of work during rest of his/her life. Scientifically it’s very boring and frustrating, if they really like to do research. In most of the cases the family life of the candidates will be ruined, particularly if they prefer to join a company where Saturday is a working day. Just like many other Indian companies (both in IT and other sectors), you are expected to stay till late into the night if your boss stays, even though you may not have any work, but to keep up with others in pleasing the higher management. This is very important for the company to measure your “productivity”, as they perceive. Once you climb the hierarchy you feel more pressure for such acts, more meetings after 7pm and during weekends/holidays. It is more problematic for women, as we can understand.
But if played properly, there is a huge scope to earn money, a lot of that, particularly for few who are street-smart and have a flare of public speaking and some managerial skill.
Let’s hear some other thoughts and opinions.
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It would be nice if you all can raise your views/thoughts on facebook at this forum : http://www.facebook.com/wall.php?id=87806233465#/group.php?gid=87806233465&ref=search
It will get noticed by the leaders who can do “something” if they really want change. -
I don’t think majority of present leaders have the desire and ability to do something better for the country. It’s high time to groom future generation of leaders and more importantly to prepare common people, common science students to demand accountability and transparency from their leaders.
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I agree with the above comment. A recent example illustrates it well and leaves no doubt. The Govt of India is creating a hype of new institutes going to be opened all over India. So, the “expert team” is on free US tour on recruitment drive distributing lollipop of “better infrastructure, sciento-cratic free environment to do science, blah blah” to make India leaders in Biological Sciences. I had asked the organizing committee (on facebook :THSTI group), if they can put the CV and the proposals of the selected candidates on the discussion forum or in THSTI website to make the point of fair selection among all the applicants. As expected the answer was a big NO with the excuse that it would “a breach of confidentiality”. I seriously don’t understand why do you need confidentiality on the candidates CV or proposal if your aim is to “reboot the scientific system” ?
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Anonymous
In my view most of us enjoy to criticize the system on forum/blogs, none of us come forward to do something to change the system. Though we criticize our politicians but I feel we all are politicians it include scientist, students etc. We wants change in system but same time we wants to play safe and expect from others to take risk and action for us. Our system is democratic which is easy to be corrected if public wants ( it depends who have majority). Govt of India has RTI act where any citizen have right to ask for information. I like Dinesh idea to discuss CV of selected and rejected candidates to make fair comparison. This information can be easily obtained under RTI. Million dollar question is who will do and why he/she will do. None of us act till we are directly effected.
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Anonymous
I agree with Dinesh. The level of frustration is evident almost everywhere. Even so-called international Institutes in India are not spared. Corruption is rife in almost everywhere. Opposing any corruption, even within the institute, is equivalent to committing suicide so far scientific career is concerned.
Organizations like ICGEB is one such example. We need to keep in mind that ICGEB is in much better position than many other high profile Indian institutes, so far institutional corruption is concerned. Rampant corruption is there in ICGEB at almost every level, starting from recruitment of faculties to peons to technical staff and postdocs and PhD students.
Scientist sues international genetic centre for $5 million
Indian biotech centre rocked by controversy Nature 408, 127 (9 November 2000) “Yashwantrai Vaishnav, who was a senior research scientist in the virology group until resigning in 1998, complains that “the politics is so deep-rooted at ICGEB that, it appears to me, no significant change can be brought about”.
As usual, higher authorities are quick to deny all allegations and all faculties willing to stay there have no other option but to sing the same song, director or other higher authority wants them to.
It does not make sense and worth wasting personal money and energy to oppose institutional corruption in a country where conviction rate is only about 6% , (as per CVC, India). That is one of the main reasons why people can not oppose corruption by staying within the “system” and risk their career and sometimes lives. -
Anonymous
To whom do you like to complain? Most of the times your complaint will end up with the same person against whom you lodged complain. If you are complaining against $100 corruption, the person who will adjudicate “justice” himself is involved in $1000 corruption. India is the largest democracy without having any democracy in any of our democratic intuitions and political parties (who deliver “democracy” to people). At best we can describe it as “person based”, not “system based”. All our democratic institutions and society functions as typical feudal system in guise of “democracy”. Right of information act is great but it’s of no use if justice is not served after getting the information. A typical civil litigation takes about 10-29 years (as per CVC report) to come to any conclusion. If I complain against my institution, I will be sacked without much delay in some pretext or other. Now it becomes my responsibility to prove that I was right. In the process my career is doomed; my family is ruined without any income (“till investigation pending” and then “till justice is served”). The person who sacked me will have almost no consequences, neither in the short term nor in the long term. Even if I win the case after lengthy legal battle, that person might have retired. All pending dues will be given to me by tax payers’ money, not from that person’s income. We all know how Satyen Dubey was murdered and how the information leaked from PM’s office even after “Whistle blower act”. There is huge difference in having a law and impartial implementation of that. In short, India is a country with lots of laws but without justice.
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“Million dollar question is who will do and why he/she will do. None of us act till we are directly effected.”
Answers for both the questions lie in this forum discussion. It’s high time to act because we all are already affected.
There are many people in this forum who never asked any technical or his/her own career benefit related issues. They are not being benefitted financially or scientifically by spending time and giving their inputs in this discussion. In fact many are risking their career by expressing their personal views in this open forum while many others do not like to be identified for obvious reasons. Even you joined in this discussion without having any financial or research benefit, I think. I can assume that people like you and many others are taking part in this discussion with an aim to make meaningful change in the system.
It’s we; the general people, have to do it. Someone may try staying within the system and many from outside. It’s not the job of a single person or can be achieved in a short time. But unless we take some initiative, unless we gather a critical mass of like-minded people, nothing is going to change. And that will never be achieved if we do not communicate openly in forums like this. -
Probably we are deviating form the issue here. Some of the latest comments can fit better in other thread like How to improve India’s higher education and research quality?
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Let’s use some of the above data and put the discussion on track again.
Poor conviction rate and almost non-existent legal system is one of the main reasons for rampant cheating of its own employees by private companies. It also can be attributed towards low productivity, heavy dependence on cheap labour, cheap raw material rather than quality manpower and product for current R&D efforts in Biotech industry in India.
India is well known for wide spread adulteration of foods and drugs. But not a single high profile industrialist or businessman have ever been convicted and punished under “food and drug adulteration (prevention) act” despite of many severe cases of food and drug adulteration that took many lives in cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai etc. E.g- Death by medicine
People feel that the government is ineffective, said Singh. I think it all started with the dropsy case; some people died after consuming adulterated mustard oil, but no one has been punished till dateIt’s unthinkable that industrialists leading WorldCom, Enron type huge business empires in India can ever be convicted and punished. Even when the concerned businessman himself admitted wrong doings, it will take ages to get final conviction and punished (e.g Satyam’s Ramalinga Raju’s case).
It’s no surprise that no Indian businessman cares much while conducting dubious clinical trials using human guineapigs, or selling banned, yet-to-be-approved/outdated drugs or discharging highly toxic/hazardous waste directly into environment. They know everything has a price here, even human lives. If you can pay that, you are free to do whatever you like. For the same reason they do not care much to honor written contracts with lower level employees. Anything can be justified in the name of “company policy”. But such lack of law implementation does not always work in favour of companies. Many smart people also use the same loopholes to break written contracts and bonds to change jobs or going abroad for sabbaticals. -
Anonymous
Oh dear, Talking about ICGEB! If you are the son-in-law of an ex-Governor General of Delhi, having highly politically powerful family, got powerful degrees from ivy league universities in UK (just like a prince of native kingdoms during British era), you are bound to think that you are the king and have the right to get away with anything (and he does), can sack any person who dares to disagree with you. It is his greatness that present director of ICGEB is not officially declaring ICGEB as his personal kingdom, sorry institute, with full support from DBT, Indian Government and ICGEB board in Italy. Kings always know whom to please and how to please. No point in opposing him in his royal mission to make India and other third world countries scientific power houses.
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