By Zubair Ahmed BBC correspondent in Bombay

Mr Lundqvist: Reluctant about coming to India

Skilled Indian professionals have for years been travelling to the West in search of better job opportunities and a higher standard of living, but now the traffic may have started to flow from west to east.

Some of India's biggest companies have begun importing executives from the US and Europe for the top jobs.

According to one estimate, there are about 20,000 western expatriates working for indigenous Indian companies.

Opportunity

Lars Lundqvist, a Swede, manages a refinery owned by the chemicals to textiles conglomerate Reliance Group in Gujarat on India's west coast.

V V Bhat: Certain jobs are passport independent

When he arrived five years ago, he was one of the first Westerner to be employed by an Indian company.

Initially, Mr Lundqvist was a bit reluctant to come to India, even though he had worked in several developing countries before.

"When I got the offer from Reliance, I was a bit apprehensive," he said.

"I had not even heard of Reliance, but my wife said of course we should go, it'll be a great opportunity to see another culture."

"When I came here, it was in the final stages of construction, but I realised how big the refinery was.

"It is not just a life-time opportunity for Indians, it was for me as well."

Value

Reliance headhunted Mr Lundqvist for his expertise in refinery safety and insists that he has indeed introduced safety measures comparable with any refinery in the world.

Many Indians believe they have a lot to learn from foreign executives

Mr Lundqvist is one of more than 200 senior Western executives the company brought over to India as part of a carefully drawn up business plan to buy in skills Indians need to learn.

"There are certain jobs in our projects which are passport independent because of the sheer value they bring to the project," human resource manager V V Bhat said.

"I think most of the systems and processes they bring with them from their previous multi-national companies are of great value addition here, and if you start a new company with those systems and processes you've got a winner."

Represented

Experts believe managerial imports are a quick way of learning what is not taught at domestic business schools.

No Indian has been deprived of his job because he is not a foreigner V V Bhat Human resource manager Reliance Group

So although the trickle of foreign executives has yet to become a trend, that could soon change, according to Toral Patel of the global Accord Group, which headhunt westerners for Indian companies.

Ms Patel gets many calls from top-flight Western executives seeking work in India, and they are in demand with many Indian firms.

Take the software giant Infosys which employs 300 foreigners, equivalent to 2% of its workforce.

Similarly, the raw materials giant Aditya Birla has 20 nationalities represented in its 72,000 strong workforce, while the industrial conglomerate Tata is another great example, said Ms Patel.

Gain

The foreign specialists are warmly welcomed by Indian workers, insisted Mr Bhat.

"No Indian has been deprived of his job because he is not a foreigner," he said.

"Indians know the expatriates are here for a limited period of time.