India Pays, The West Profits: The Harsh Truth Behind Brain Drain.

🇮🇳 IITs or IT Exports?

 

India Pays, The West Profits: The Harsh Truth Behind Brain Drain

Sudheer reddy 

📝 By The South9 Media | #TheSouth9 #BrainDrain #IITs #NationalPolicy #OutsourcedBharat

 

Every January 26th, the nation celebrates its achievements — and among the proudest mentions is the IIT ecosystem, hailed as India’s crown jewel of innovation, intelligence, and technological strength.

 

But behind the applause lies a silent truth.

 

India, using the taxes of its hardworking citizens, spends ₹10–15 lakh per student to educate young minds at premier institutes like the IITs. In 2024–25 alone, the total budget for IITs stands at a whopping ₹9,660 crore.

 

Yet after graduation, a massive portion of these state-funded students leave India.

 

🚨 The Numbers That Hurt:

•📤 30–36% of IIT graduates migrate abroad

•🌍 62% of Top 100 JEE rankers settle in the US or Europe

•🧠 70% of those who remain in India work for foreign MNCs like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, McKinsey

•🛰️ <2–3% join ISRO, DRDO, BARC, or Indian PSUs

 

🤔 Where Are the Nation-Builders?

 

IITs were built not to supply tech talent to Silicon Valley, but to:

•Strengthen India’s atomic research

•Drive innovation in rural development

•Power India’s defence and space exploration

•Support public sector growth in engineering, design & production

 

Leaders like Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Vikram Sarabhai, Homi Bhabha envisioned IITs as the backbone of India’s scientific self-reliance.

 

Today, many of those trained at public expense have become global citizens, building apps for Wall Street while Indian scientists struggle with outdated labs and paltry salaries.

 

💰 A Tale of Two Paychecks

•👨‍💻 Average US software engineer salary: ₹1.5 crore/year

•🛰️ ISRO scientist salary (entry-level): ₹12 lakh/year

 

The message is clear: Serve the nation, get underpaid.

Serve a foreign company, get a visa and valuation.

 

🧠 This Isn’t Just Brain Drain

 

It’s “Cognitive Asset Laundering”

India funds the education.

The West reaps the innovation.

 

The IIT dream has become a global tech pipeline, where talent flows outward, with India left clapping for LinkedIn promotions and international awards.

 

📸 Our Rewards?

•A selfie with Sundar Pichai

•A viral tweet on another “Indian-origin CEO”

•A national obsession with individual success stories while public institutions decay

 

We celebrate exports of minds like we once exported cotton and diamonds.

 

🔍 The Bigger Question: Who’s Asking Why?

•Why are foreign MNCs allowed to recruit from national institutes without contributing to India’s development?

•Why isn’t there a mandatory 3–5 year national service bond for public-funded graduates?

•Why can’t private firms pay back into India’s ecosystem when they recruit from IITs?

 

📜 A Call for Reform: National Brain Retention Plan

 

It’s time for serious policy overhauls:

 

✅ Create a “Brain Retention Fund” to incentivize top talent to stay in India

✅ Mandate public service or sectoral contribution for govt-funded students

✅ Impose “payback clauses” if migrating abroad within 3 years

✅ Restrict exclusive access to foreign MNCs without domestic investment

✅ Offer competitive salaries, innovation labs, and startup grants for national service

 

✊ Final Thought:

 

We aren’t asking our youth to give up their dreams.

We’re asking them to build their dreams here.

 

Let IIT mean India’s Innovation Tribe, not International Talent Transfer.

 

It’s time we stop clapping for Viksit America at the cost of Outsourced Bharat.

 

📌 Tag an IITian or policymaker who should read this.

🔁 Share if you believe our top minds deserve a mission — not just a paycheck.

💬 Comment your thoughts. The debate begins now.

 

#TheSouth9 #IITBrainDrain #ViksitBharat #TaxpayerMoney #NationalDuty #BrainGain #EngineeringIndia #PolicyMatters #IndiaFirst #IITiansForIndia