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India wants to lure its best minds back from the US - but it won't be easy
BBC ^ | October 5, 2025 | Nikhil Inamdar

Posted on 10/05/2025 5:07:05 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

US President Donald Trump's abrupt decision to hike H-1B visa fees to $100,000 has prompted policymakers in Delhi to woo skilled Indians back home.

A bureaucrat, who works closely with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, recently said that the government was actively encouraging overseas Indians to return and contribute to nation-building. Yet, another member of the PM's economic advisory council told a media conclave that H-1B visas have always served the interests of the host nation, and so the hike in fee boded well for India's ability to attract global talent.

The crux of these arguments is that the time is ripe for India to engineer a reverse brain drain and lure some of the world's most talented professionals in technology, medicine and other innovative industries, who'd left the country in the past 30 years, back to the homeland.

There is some anecdotal evidence to suggest that an increasingly hostile immigration environment in the US is prompting a few Indians to think along these lines. But getting hundreds of thousands of people to ditch Bellevue for Bengaluru will be easier said than done, several experts told the BBC.

Nithin Hassan is among the few Indians who had settled in the US for the last 20 years but took a leap of faith and decided to move back to Bengaluru - often called India's Silicon Valley - last year.

It wasn't an easy call. He quit a million-dollar job at Meta to plunge into the uncertain world of start-ups.

"I've always wanted to start something of my own, but my immigration status in the US limited that freedom," Mr Hassan told the BBC.

Since his return, Mr Hassan has launched two start-ups, including a platform called B2I (Back to India)...

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
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1 posted on 10/05/2025 5:07:05 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Do not redeem, SAAR!


2 posted on 10/05/2025 5:09:27 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

How can we help?


3 posted on 10/05/2025 5:11:50 PM PDT by JZelle
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Good, go. AMF.


4 posted on 10/05/2025 5:13:56 PM PDT by central_va ( I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: grey_whiskers

5 posted on 10/05/2025 5:14:56 PM PDT by Sertorius (A hayseed with no Greek and dam^ proud of it)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Please don’t “limit your freedom” in America as an indentured servant. Go home !


6 posted on 10/05/2025 5:15:23 PM PDT by central_va ( I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

If it is too good to be true than it could be a fake out. Please God let this be real.


7 posted on 10/05/2025 5:19:02 PM PDT by central_va ( I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Groovy

MIGA


8 posted on 10/05/2025 5:32:27 PM PDT by Regulator (It's fraud, Jim)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Very easy. Just pack em in planes like Cattle and send them back.


9 posted on 10/05/2025 5:35:21 PM PDT by tennmountainman ( (“Less propaganda would be appreciated.” JimRobr 12-2-2023 DITTO)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The $100000, is just for new H1Bs. The existing ones aren’t affected. So anyone who is already here and safe in their role doesn’t have much motivation to want to go back.


10 posted on 10/05/2025 5:42:27 PM PDT by Marko413
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Hopefully the start of their voluntary return. They are destroying our local communities throughout the West. Aggressively taking over local governments and destroying our once great corporations with their uncreative and ultra greedy leadership.

Feds should cancel all contracts with Indian C level led companies. They’re stealing our IP even worse than China.


11 posted on 10/05/2025 5:51:38 PM PDT by Battlestar (Tired of transgenders, drug addicts, and mentally ill taking over our streets, schools, government)
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To: tennmountainman

Planes? Please. Tramp steamers will do the job.


12 posted on 10/05/2025 5:56:08 PM PDT by bobcat62
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To: Marko413

The $100,000 isn’t going to stop voters screaming about ending temporary work visas.
If they send ‘em home, they’ll win the mid-term.


13 posted on 10/05/2025 5:57:31 PM PDT by bobcat62
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Maybe these so brilliant Indian minds will get mad at America and say “Oh yeah! Well we’ll go back to India and launch that bitch into the economic stratosphere”!!!


14 posted on 10/05/2025 6:03:56 PM PDT by TalBlack (Their god is government. Prepare for a religious war.https://freerepublic.com/perl/post?id=4322961%2)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

You can’t do business in a corrupt country.


15 posted on 10/05/2025 6:22:40 PM PDT by SecondAmendment (Political insight on loan from Rush Limbaugh)
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To: TalBlack

I would be very happy if India would elevate itself (and a great many other places too) instead of seeking only to leech off us to the net detriment of both countries.

Of course this would require they recognize all Indians as people instead of only a few percent upper caste and the rest scum. This is both why people seek to get the H out of India and why, when they arrive, they start treating actual Americans like dirt.

For instance, despite having multiple advanced degrees, when I noted to an otherwise friendly (and Christian!) Indian family that I had done my own plumbing work, I and family instantly became in their eyes people good only for carrying things and maybe fixing their toilet. They even suggested it.

To our eyes this is self-reliance, at least DIY capability, and there’s the famous Heinlein quote. To them top people just don’t think or do that stuff, full stop.


16 posted on 10/05/2025 6:29:32 PM PDT by No.6
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Interesting how reluctant *immigrants* are to return to their home countries, and yet all the while try to make the US more like them.

GO BACK HOME AND FIX YOUR OWN PROBLEMS!!!!


17 posted on 10/05/2025 6:30:41 PM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus….)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

On one hand, maybe it would be better for India if their “best minds” remained in the country. On the other hand, would that really get them more flush toilets, property rights, and lower-friction markets?


18 posted on 10/05/2025 6:39:48 PM PDT by Tax-chick (Sounds like a great idea, with the best of intentions. What could possibly go wrong?)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Best minds.


19 posted on 10/05/2025 7:52:06 PM PDT by MrBambaLaMamba (אני עומד לצד ישראל. The only good commie is one that's dead - Country Joe McDonald)
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To: MrBambaLaMamba

Top men.

Top.

Men.


20 posted on 10/05/2025 7:56:50 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Je suis Charlie Kirk.)
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