This is a topic that is sure to go on and on but i`ll put in my 2 cents as an ex-ex-pat of 5 years in India.
1st --Indian licences are equaly suspect to corruption, i`ve had co-pilots tell me that they have many hours signed by instructors, and they never even got airborne
2nd--maybe "air india" ex-pats don`t pay tax, but i for one have a "pan" card and was never issued a "work permit" unless proof of tax paid was recieved.
3rd--the medical issue is solely due to the utterly RIDICULOUS habit in india of having "air force" doctors do commercial pilots medicals, that is utter nonsense which airforce has 50 year old pilots
4th--when it comes to leave its stupid to believe that ex-pats get more time off eg. i used to get 6 weeks every 20 weeks + 1 day off every week=84+52 =136 days per year, in the previous airline i got 10 days off in every 28 days=130+ 21 days leave=151 days per year.
5th--as regards pay ex-pats got thier tax paid by the company so yes they got 30% more than local pilots BUT they were 10,000 miles away from family and friends.
To sum all this up the co, that i worked for in India is going to be desperatly short of qualified CAPTAINS by year end, and why you might ask, well just maybe the fact that the DGCA issued a mere 82 ALTP`s in one year and there are over 900 ex-pats, just might be a reason,
As for the Indian media well what can i say,
