Latest news with #SecessionoftheSuccessful:TheFlightoutofNewIndia
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Sanjaya Baru interview: We've turned emigration of talented Indians into an aspiration
A record number of wealthy Indians are leaving the country. According to a recent report by Kotak Bank, one in five UHNIs is either in the process of migrating abroad or has plans to do so. Over 23,000 millionaires have left the country in the last decade, says Sanjaya Baru. In his latest book, Secession of the Successful: The Flight out of New India, the veteran journalist and policy commentator records the various phases of organised migration out of the country and examines the reasons behind the current exodus. Also read | Review: Sanjaya Baru's book does a favour to history, Congress Sanjaya Baru, an economist and political analyst, has written extensively on India's economic transformation and development. His recent book is Secession of the Successful: The Flight Out of New India. For the elite, the pull of the first-world life, especially in Dubai or Singapore, is too strong, says Baru. 'Why wait for 2047 to live in a developed economy if you can do so today?' he says. In this interview, Baru talks about how the exodus has been normalised, the political and economic factors driving it, and what it means for a country that hopes to be a developed economy by 2047. You argue in your book that India's elite aren't just leaving physically, they are slowly pulling away from the idea of India itself. So, would you call this book a warning, a lament, or a diagnosis? It's certainly not a lament. It is a warning. It's a diagnosis to begin with. The brain drain, or the export of human capital, drew attention 40 to 50 years ago when economists like Jagdish Bhagwati wrote about it. But in the last quarter century, no one is paying attention. We have normalised the emigration of talented Indians, to the point where the government actually takes pride in promoting it. So yes, it's a warning: that you're allowing more and more of your talented people to leave, and doing nothing to retain them. And it's a diagnosis, because I look at the different manifestations of emigration. You've described the secession as a flight from responsibility. The rich are also leaving Brazil, South Africa and Turkey. So, why should we be expecting something different from the elite in India? I don't expect anything different. This is not peculiarly Indian, nor is it new. If other countries don't pay attention, that's their headache. But as an Indian concerned about the economy, I worry that more and more talented Indians are leaving. You've written about the government facilitating emigration. Other countries try to curb it. Is this official encouragement a policy mistake? It is a mistake, but a recent one. Labour migration involves talent too, but given our large pool of unemployed workers, I don't worry about it as much. Highly qualified Indians leaving is something a poor, low-income, developing country like ours should worry about. Countries like China, Taiwan, or Korea had large-scale emigration 30 to 40 years ago, but now have return migration because they've become developed economies. We are not at that stage. We cannot prevent emigration. Proposals like Bhagwati's 'brain drain' tax in the 1980s were dismissed as impractical, but why should we encourage it? For example, the foreign minister recently launched the 'Global Access for Talented Indians' initiative. Why should the government get involved in sending people out? We are a capital-deficit economy — and by capital I mean not just finance, but also human capital. Our record in research, science, and advanced fields is poor for a country of our size. What role have political changes played, especially since 2014? The numbers show an increase in the emigration of wealthy and elite Indians over the last decade. There's an economic reason and a political reason. Economically, more Indians can now afford to buy citizenship overseas, property overseas, educate their children abroad, and live abroad. Politically, there is fear — of the taxman, the Enforcement Directorate, and harassment by the bureaucracy. Last year Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised an 'ease of living mission', but nothing was heard after that. Day-to-day life has become more of a headache: constant KYC forms, compliance demands. That's driving some people out. At diaspora events, overseas Indians cheer the Prime Minister and shout 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' and yet they don't return. Is this performative? It is performative, but more than that, it's the politicisation of the diaspora to serve domestic political needs. Every prime minister since 1947 has met overseas Indians; what's new is using these audiences to influence the domestic political process. This risks diplomatic consequences. A Singaporean diplomat once asked me if politicisation of overseas Indians could hurt bilateral relations. Tensions among Sikhs, Khalistanis, and Hindu groups in Canada, the UK, and the US show that the diaspora can become a source of political and law-and-order problems. And yes, there is hypocrisy. If you're so proud of Bharat Mata and this leadership, why don't you come back and help build the country? Post-independence, some of India's best minds went abroad but returned. That isn't happening now. Why? In Jawaharlal Nehru's time, many high-profile Indians returned — Homi Bhabha, Vikram Sarabhai, others — sometimes at his personal request. Conditions in India were modest, but they still came back. In recent decades, very few have returned. Even those who did, like Raghuram Rajan, stayed only briefly. The trend of permanent high-profile return ended in the 1980s. Can India still turn its diaspora into a national asset, as other countries have? Yes, the opportunity hasn't passed. But it depends on leadership that can inspire people the way Nehru did. Today, 22,000 Indians are professors in the US. If even 2% came to teach here, it would make a difference. Some universities like ISB, Ashoka, and Jindal have attracted talent, but not in large numbers. Have we made emigration too aspirational, then? Exactly. We're not ringing alarm bells; we've internalised it. As (economist) Devesh Kapur once noted, most of our elite — across business, politics, diplomacy, bureaucracy, the armed forces, academia — have children who want to emigrate. It's a loss of both human and financial capital. Last year, for the first time, outward FDI exceeded inward FDI. In a labour-surplus, capital-deficit economy, we should be retaining both finance and human capital. But we're not even trying.
Mint
24-07-2025
- Business
- Mint
Rama Bijapurkar on the flight of Non-Returning Indians (NRIs): Cause for celebration or concern?
Next Story Business News/ Opinion / Views/ Rama Bijapurkar on the flight of Non-Returning Indians (NRIs): Cause for celebration or concern? Rama Bijapurkar Sanjaya Baru's new book—'Secession of the Successful: The Flight out of New India'—cracks open a crucial debate on whether the latest wave of out-migration is doing the country any good. There is a need for a serious debate on what the consequences of the 'secession of the successful' will be and how to mitigate it. Gift this article Before and after 1991, the way we think about certain phenomena has dramatically changed. 'Household consumption' is a phenomenon that went from being whipping boy to valued driver of economic growth and foreign direct investment. Before and after 1991, the way we think about certain phenomena has dramatically changed. 'Household consumption' is a phenomenon that went from being whipping boy to valued driver of economic growth and foreign direct investment. Out-migration by Indians is another. It has gone from the despair of 'brain drain' to the delight of 'diaspora,' and those who migrated have gone from being seen as deserters of the motherland to global ambassadors of brand India. 'Diaspora,' a word that is infused with positive meaning, represents our pride and joy at our visible presence in the world, especially the developed world. The fact that Indians get more H1-B visas than almost everyone else in the world is seen as a badge of honour, a testimonial to how sought-after our talent is. Post the infotech boom, when our educated, tech-savvy youngsters fanned out to live all over the world, the oft-repeated sentiment of Indians was one of relief that the image of India in the eyes of the world has zoomed upwards. Products of top Indian colleges, they proved their mettle, stayed on in the international circuit and have risen to top jobs around the world. One does not need to name the many poster boys and girls of this phenomenon. They are well known and well celebrated in India. The arts and all branches of academia also have had their fair share of Indian exported glitterati and we have also embraced the likes of Rishi Sunak and Kamala Harris as our own—'of Indian origin' being the expanded definition of our diaspora . Against this backdrop comes a new book by the astute thinker and writer Sanjaya Baru, arguing that our celebration needs a reality check and harder questions need to be asked. Provocatively titled Secession of the Successful: The Flight out of New India, it reframes the issues of migration, global citizenship and our image-enhancing, money-remitting diaspora. Baru discusses the four phases of migration that India has had, the present phase being the one that he feels we should worry about the most. The first phase he describes as enforced migration of indentured labour from interior India to scattered remote locations around the world from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century. Amitava Ghosh fans will know this story well. The second wave of out-migration, he says, mimicked the first in many ways, and was of semi-skilled workers to the Gulf and West Asia; both waves being people in search of better living conditions. Although, the popular refrain we have heard from Indian migrants to the Gulf is that they endured worse living conditions in order to make a lot of money so that they could return to a better life back home. The third phase of the 1990s and early 2000s he describes as the large-scale migration of qualified professionals, doctors and engineers, inspiring new phrases like 'knowledge worker' and 'elite migration.' The fourth and most recent wave, which he dates to 2010 onwards, is the migration of the wealthy and high net worth individuals, the 'country's power elites." While the first and second waves of migration were benign or positive for the Indian economy, the third and fourth waves are a drain of brain and wealth; and should ring alarm bells. He analyses the implications for India's progress and asserts that the benefit of soft power gained is not a good enough compensation for what is lost. Why our elites are leaving is an interesting question. Baru says it is taxes and governance. Could it be that they merely have multiple homes around the world, including in India, and shop for the best tax deals? Is this the new world in which home is where the heart is at the moment, as Mira Nair said when an interviewer asked her which of the many countries she lives in does she consider 'home.' As we speak, in the UK too, there is a vigorous discussion on what the Times calls the 'wealth exodus." It says that the 'exodus of wealth from Britain has accelerated since the turn of the year, fuelling fears that the abolition of the non domiciled tax regime will wipe out billions of pounds from the economy." Perhaps it is the nature of the wealthy to choose wealth preservation over home nation love. The UK is mulling over a 'concierge service' to attract companies and their talent to the UK. William Hague, a politician who is currently Chancellor of Oxford University, writes in response that for the wealthy to give up Dubai or Monaco and stay to pay inheritance tax on their worldwide assets would need 'the most extraordinary concierge service the world has ever seen." Perhaps India should institute a concierge service for startups so that our expanding number of unicorns can be registered here and attract foreign capital, instead of being registered abroad and creating wealth outside the country by serving the Indian market. Also read: Why are the rich leaving India? Whatever the argument, Baru's book points to the need for a serious debate on what the consequences of the 'secession of the successful' will be and how we need to mitigate it. The author is a business advisor. Topics You May Be Interested In Catch all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
