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India's Tech Titans Flee Homeland, Fueling Brain Drain Concerns
31 Jul
Summary
- Perplexity, an AI-powered search engine, valued at $18B after new funding
- Nearly 1.9M Indians renounced citizenship between 2011-2023
- No Indian in India has won a Nobel Prize in science since 1930
The recent success of Perplexity, an AI-powered search engine co-founded by 31-year-old Aravind Srinivas, has thrust the issue of India's "brain drain" into the spotlight. Perplexity, which Srinivas describes as "a marriage of Wikipedia and ChatGPT," has been valued at $18 billion after a new round of funding, with investors including Jeff Bezos and former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki.
However, Srinivas's story also highlights a concerning trend in India. According to a new book by Indian author and journalist Sanjaya Baru, nearly 1.9 million Indians renounced their citizenship between 2011 and 2023, including many of the country's most talented engineers, doctors, and scientists. This "secession of the successful" has had significant implications, as India has failed to produce a Nobel Prize winner in science living within the country since 1930.
The article argues that while India has produced numerous tech titans who have found success abroad, such as Google's Sundar Pichai and Microsoft's Satya Nadella, the country has struggled to retain and attract global talent. Factors such as a lack of infrastructure, bureaucratic interference, and limited investment in research have made it challenging for India to keep its brightest minds. As China aggressively works to attract top scientific talent, India's inability to stem the brain drain could have geopolitical consequences in the years to come.
