1132000 Indians gave up citizenship since 2014- Brain Drain for India, "Human Capital" for the receiving country.

11,30,000 Indians have given up citizenship since 2015. Obviously, the destinations are USA, Australia & Canada. The Middle East offers a lot of jobs but does not give citizenship.  In the 80s&90s,there was a craze for jobs in the middle east. The USA was an obvious attraction but back then the only way was through doing a masters. Immigration laws, demand for skilled workers especially in the silicon valley took Indians to today’s position of literally having the largest ethnic workforce in the valley. Most companies there have Indian CEOs and are staffed with Indians throughout. Many unicorns and companies have  Indian origins. The lure for an American Life is so high that given a chance, even 1 crore people will be ready to take green card, the route to citizenship.

We asked IntelliIndia to do analysis for us. We have included their findings in this article. 

Except the lockdown era when immigration was stopped, there never has been any letdown in the exit. More HNIs are preferring to leave India and reside abroad primarily due to taxation concerns. The hard working MSME’s are beset with GST and other issues that compliance alone takes up 20% of the time for businesses. It is so easy to focus on businesses that are GST exempt. 

I asked many of my relatives and friends as to why they just abandoned Indian citizenship.  Many of them tell me that good education for their children, comfortable life, no social stigma and no muddied politics. These are the pull factors of the USA while the lack of the same are push factors from India.  Some want to get into politics. Unlike in India where there are barriers of Caste & money, one can rise fast in politics in the west if one is honest about himself/herself.  We have seen how Kamala Harris and Rishi Sunak has reached pinnacles which we Indians could never aspire for earlier. In India, for all parties, caste, money distribution and religion forms the crux of their politics. Appeasement politics has been bane of political system in India. So much concentrated it has become that a new political party desirous of change will ultimately become like these parties. There is a long list of dynastic politics and nepotism in political parties too. One can spend 20-30 years in a party yet will never get number two position in some parties. From father to son passes the baton like in monarchy despite we leaving monarchy long back. The leaders too always keep focused on protecting their position within the party. Hence they do not allow creation of second rung of leadership. This is true of all parties in India. They depend on the charisma of the main leader whose branding forms the crux of the party's campaigns. In some cases, as we have seen recently in shiv sena case, SUNRISE is not being accepted by the cadre for they too have spent as many years as the main leader in the party. Now sidelining them and pushing scions is not acceptable in the party. This change might herald change in other family parties too. They suppress talent blatantly. This insecurity of leaders is rampant in Indian corporates too.

In many public,private companies and political parties, talent is not allowed to flourish. There is so much suppression at the lower levels by satraps that only psychopants are given positions and promotions. The leader is careful to only have dummies around him. A bright person might uproot his position and hence he is suppressed. All this talent on the earliest available opportunity migrates abroad and never comes back. This is the pull factor of the USA pushed by the unhealthy attitudes of some managers in companies and government. Many political parties deliberately keep rebels against those whom they feel a threat too. Also, politicians only take those who can spend money to distribute among people for votes. The rate per vote starts from 500 rs to even 10000 rs in some areas.  The politician who spends that money recovers that money through road contracts or land grabbing, their major source of incomes. So the common man with talent who has the ability to pull votes is pushed out of the system. The rise of Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi & Punjab is not just due to freebies. It is because many common people were given the opportunity to became MLAs. These people would have never dreamed of coming into politics with traditional parties. AAP gave that hope to the common man and hence Delhi has voted him twice to power and recently also gave MCD to them ending BJP's 15 year reign there. 

Barring these exceptions, there is no hope for a common man to ever come up in politics without compromising his principles but in the west, one can remain true to his values and still be elected. Elections are not as murky as in India.  Those not elected are still pushed into the system through nominated posts, mlcs and rajya sabha in India. There are dynasties waiting even at corporator level.Such glass ceilings frustrate the person who really wants to come into politics to do public service. The Civil services carried a glorious touch till the software industry took over. Even today,civil services is an opportunity to serve people but not alluring financially since the software engineers get a chance to go abroad and settle but in other professions, it is not possible. But even today within the system, there are people who spend a lot of time doing great jobs in their positions and bringing change. Such bureaucrats become role models for the rest of the system and inspiring to youth to join IAS. Civils and Army hence still has not lost its allure despite the strong pull of the dollar, a big independent house, two cars and 6 figure income in the west. 

I sometimes wonder if the army officer and lSRO scientist too thought like software engineers who give up their citizenships, would we have a safe country. If CSIR scientists had not constantly worked on food, we would not have had brilliant innovations in food processing today. This workforce is not getting attracted by the lure of the dollar and the green card.India is getting sustained and moving ahead due to this workforce and not due to the dollar remittances coming from those working abroad. If farmers stop growing food and pursue a software career, there would be a food crisis across India. India is facing a severe labour shortage which is being currently filled with labour from bangladesh, nepal, afghanistan and even sri lanka. 

Some others who left their citizenships cited pollution and corruption too. Fully agree. The USA is five times bigger than us and has 1/4th of our population. Hence there is so much space and less pollution. People stay in the suburbs. A middle class person can purchase a house with a huge garden, parking space,etc.,at one tenth of the pricing of an Indian metropolitan city house. Children can get rote free education in USA unlike in India where education is competitive and rote learning is rampant.

Healthcare in the USA is also highly advanced.  There is absolutely zero corruption in the system in the lowest rung in USA which ensures fair governance. In India, there is corruption even at the lowest rung in the system. All talk of a corruption free society is only for political campaigns. The politician who gets elected on the plank of corruption uses that very system to enrich his coffers. In 72 years, corruption has never been curbed at any levels.  Only the beneficiaries change in the system, not the corruption. We live in a nation where the sub registrar will demand bribe even for registering a will. A Will is a person's last statement and his ultimate wish. The sub registrar demands bribes based on the number of properties one has. I have seen so many instances where the people have paid since there is no choice left to them sometimes. The will needs to be registered urgently. There is no remorse in these officials in trying to make money even on a person's last testimony. 

There is usual noise about brain drain which will be countered by the IT guys asking to look at the remittance incomes. They only look at our spending power but they do not look at our buying power. A weak rupee curbs our buying power. It makes all our purchases costlier. I have watched rupee from the days it was at seventeen rupees. If the rupee rises to thirty five rupees, half the software industry would be impacted. Indians will be able to get more products at cheaper prices. We can buy more items with our stronger rupee. Our exporters always want a weak rupee so that foreigners will buy more  of our export products at cheaper prices to them.  They never look at the fact that we can buy more of outside products with a stronger rupee instead of a weaker rupee. Our exporters infact will be most happy when rupee hits 100 to the dollar. They do not realize that it will make all our purchases costlier. 

The Indian diaspora do not face the social constraints in the west and are able to rise fast as seen in the number of Indians rising to become CEOs or Rishi Sunak becoming the PM of UK.  This is the pull factor that pushes Indians to the west. Those who keep complaining about brain drain need to ensure a fair atmosphere in India which will ensure that people will stay back in India. India has never been able to create a Silicon Valley in India. Bangalore alone has shown promise with many startups starting their business in Bangalore which has the atmosphere of a cosmopolitan city. 

Can India stop this brain drain?Impossible.It cannot stop this brain drain. There has been no improvement on the social side. The founding fathers and vote bank politicians have pushed India into a caste abyss out of which it can never come out.  There is hope here only for those who want to live in the country despite its several issues. They constitute the majority of India’s unskilled population.The skilled population will always want to go abroad. Noone had the lure for the USA till the rupee fell. 

If the rupee gains strength, the entire software bubble burst will alone push Indians back to India. No one in RBI has ever tried so since 1991 when India aligned with the USA. It has been a downfall for rupee ever since, the beneficiary of which has been west since for pennies, it has been able to hire Indians.  If the Rupee were as it was in 1947 at 4 rupees to the dollar, India would be the world leader and have tremendous buying power. Today, India’s productivity is being bought for cheap with a weak rupee.  In my lifetime, it will not happen since we will never get such a patriotic politician. Every politician since 1991 has only strengthened the bubble through devaluing the rupee constantly. After that, market forces and the demand for the dollar by oil companies has always pushed our rupee weaker. 

The US has been able to attract Asians not just because it is a melting point of cultures, it is also because these countries' currencies are weak when pegged to the dollar.  In 1947, when rupee was four rupees to the dollar, obviously USA did not attract much. But at 82 rupees, it is so easy for americans to hire Indians at the cheap by spending just a few dollars. Hence the more weak the rupee is, the more work will come Indians way. The stronger the rupee, the lesser the work. So it is not just talent alone but also the ability to procure skillsets by spending less is what has fueled the outsourcing revolution and currently the gig world. In my lifetime, i will definitely see 100 rs to the dollar but never back to thirty five rupees.  Today, when i purchase domains, hosting or other items online, they all cost me more than they cost me couple of years back because the rupee has fallen drastically. Similarly, i want to buy a camera or a electronic item,my purchasing power is weak since the rupee is weak. A weak rupee makes me weaker. A strong rupee makes me stronger. 

The USA excels since it holds so much “Human Capital”.   In India, the poor become poorer and the rich become richer. In most countries, wealth gets concentrated in the hands of a few due to a corrupt political system which works for the benefit of the one percent of society. Hence they keep growing but not the middle class. They grab all resources and become oligarchs funding the elections of the parties they are sponsoring. It is a perennial loop. The more they grow, the more they will wield money and power to become big and neutralise their opposition.  Why will an Indian with opportunity to grow let go of it and stay back in India. The 2 lakh Indians who are gone and going out this year have given up on the hope that India will change and that there will be opportunities for them.