India's Got a Job for You

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"Their compensation is justified for selective specialized functions," says K. V. Subramaniam, CEO of Reliance Life Sciences, a Mumbai-based biotech company. "They bring years of domain experience and are involved in developing competencies among Indian understudies." Reliance has 15 expatriates—several in senior positions—receiving compensation three times that of their Indian counterparts.

Adapting to the Culture

Of course India does hold special challenges. Bureaucracy, slow decision making, and cultural differences remain major headaches. Often, spouses of executives, especially those raising families, bear the brunt of the culture shock. Lamon Rutten, joint managing director of India's Multi Commodity Exchange, admits his family is still getting accustomed to living in India.

Rutten, his wife, and two children relocated in June, 2006 to Juhu, a suburb of Mumbai, from the calm of Geneva, after he gave up a post as chief of finance and risk management in the commodities branch at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. While he enjoys the job, Rutten laments the lack of green space and the time it takes to get things repaired. "With India opening up, it has to adapt," he says.

Business life can also throw up unusual problems. U.S. native Rudy Vercelli, 47, chief operating officer of Mumbai International Airport, is often mistaken for a tourist at the airport he is helping modernize. He also has to contend with the 80,000 squatters that occupy 60% of the airport's land. "We have 960 acres of airport land, but what we need is 4,000 acres. There is no room except on top," he says. Still, Vercelli, formerly a vice-president at Bechtel, has no regrets. "I will stay in India until they kick me out. My family looks upon every move as an adventure," he says.

Lakshman covers India business for BusinessWeek.