Losing Our Minds

Our brightest scientists, engineers and researchers are settling abroad. For the country to be a tech powerhouse, this steady outflow of talent has to be checked. Can India do it?

- Parth Singh

A few months ago, Suresh K (name changed on request) bought a one-way ticket to the US, joining the quiet exodus of young Indians chasing a future their homeland could not provide. At 27, with over two years of experience at a personal finance start-up in India, Suresh has already mapped out his trajectory: a master’s degree in AI from North Carolina State University, followed by—if all goes to plan—a career in the kind of frontier technologies that shape the modern world.

For Suresh, the decision was almost inevitable. The US has long been a gravitational force for the ambitious, a place where talent is rewarded. He has no illusions about returning home. “India would have to outbid America,” he says, matter-of-factly—not just in wages, but in the very architecture of career growth, in its ability to nurture research, innovation and technological ambition.

India’s intellectual capital is, arguably, its most valuable export. Yet why does it continue to be shipped abroad? Arvind Virmani, member of NITI Aayog and a former chief economic adviser (CEA), offers a blunt diagnosis: “Independent India never built its talent pyramid from the ground up. Instead, we started at the top, investing in elite institutions while neglecting primary and secondary education.” The result is a paradox—a country that produces world-class minds but struggles to retain them.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

By late 2024, Indian-origin executives led 25 of America’s 500 largest companies, more than doubling from just 11 in the early 2010s. The likes of Satya Nadella at Microsoft, Sundar Pichai at Google and Shantanu Narayen at Adobe have become symbols of Indian excellence. Their success is often framed as a point of pride for India, yet there is a deeper unease. These leaders built empires, not in Bengaluru or Hyderabad, but in Silicon Valley.