IITians OVERSEAS: INDIA'S REMOTE ASSSETS

IITians leave to build, only to come back home

For decades, the migration of India’s top talent—especially from the IITs—to the United States has triggered a tired debate on “brain drain.” But the time has come to flip that lens. These individuals didn’t abandon India. They extended it. And the real problem is not that they left—but that they are scared to return.

NOT A DRAIN. A DETOUR.

IITians didn’t defect. They detoured—toward a system that worked.

America and other developed countries gave them access to capital, infrastructure, and a culture of innovation. India, at the time, offered bureaucracy, friction, and frustration. Many simply had no choice but to take their ideas where they could breathe.

I know. Because I did.

In the mid-1980s, I launched Dedicated Digital Machines—an Indian company designing purpose-built computers in an era dominated by IBM PCs. I didn’t clone. I created. Later, I launched Soft Machines, a full software suite. With a mechanical engineering degree and a doctorate in digital signal processing from IIT Delhi, “machines”—digital and physical—were my obsession.

But succeeding was hard, bureaucratic and economic challenges were tremendous.

So, at 35, I left India.

YOU CAN'T EXPORT IDENTITY

What you can’t take away is identity. Indians abroad carry it in their ambition, ethics, and deep-rooted memory of home.

They thrive abroad not because they lost India—but because they internalized it.

And much of what they build abroad loops back:

• Remittances that feed families and fund education.

• Start-up capital that powers Indian innovation.

• Technical know-how that quietly shapes India’s digital rise.

• Global networks that open strategic doors India could never access alone.

They may have left the geography. But the geography never left them.

KOTA MAKES THEM GRITTY. BUT INDIA'S TALENT RUNS WIDER

Half of today’s IITians are forged in Kota’s coaching cauldrons. That’s grit—not necessarily brilliance.

And those who didn’t crack the JEE? Many are equally sharp—just uncoached.

India has no shortage of intellectual capital. But what it needs is a national ecosystem that empowers it. We must widen our lens to recognize talent wherever it exists—beyond brand names, beyond metros.

WHY THEY DON'T RUN

Here lies the inconvenient truth:

Over 70% of Indians abroad want to return.

But they are afraid.

Afraid of India’s broken infrastructure.

Afraid of a bureaucratic business climate

Afraid of the chaos they once escaped.

They are not disloyal. They are cautious. And rightly so.

I returned at 60. Why?

Because I had already experienced India. I knew how to navigate it. The fear that keeps others out didn’t live in me. But for many, that first experience of “India” never came. All they know is what they hear. And what they hear, still scares them.

WHAT INDIA MUST DO

If we want them back—not just physically but productively—we must act:

• Rebuild trust in systems and governance

• Create incentives for returnees to mentor, invest, and build

• Offer ease of doing business not just in slogans, but in everyday execution

• Treat returnees not as saviours, but as strategic allies

We don’t need all of them to return young. We need them to return seasoned—with maturity, capital, networks, and clarity.

Let them be India’s second innings strategy.

Bottom Line:

You can take the Indian out of India. But India quietly travels with them—inside their ambition, ethics, memory, and determination to contribute back, when it is time to do so.

Let’s stop calling them deserters. Let’s start calling them remote assets—waiting for the right India to return to, till then readily available to be leveraged