Not alarmed about the rising talent migration from India: Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu

India’s rising talent outflow is not a surprise to Sridhar Vembu, Zoho CEO, as he took to microblogging site X and shared the reasons behind this. In his detailed post, Vembu highlighted that talent migration from Korea/Taiwan to the US peaked in the 1970s and '80s, preceded by Japanese migration, while Chinese migration topped around a decade ago, during a time of rapid development in these nations.

“When a country is extremely underdeveloped, talent migration is very low. When a country is very wealthy, talent migration is also very low. Talent migration peaks during the period of rapid development,” the Zoho CEO adds.

He emphasised that this migration is quite evident in Silicon Valley in the USA, where Indian migrants outnumber those from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

He highlights the reason being rising aspiration levels. Restlessness in India is primarily observed in urban tech centres, he opines. “Our aspirations necessarily race ahead of reality and it is precisely during the period of rapid growth that we have the most restless people, and it is the restless spirits who tend to migrate,” the Zoho CEO says.

He further states that once the economic potential is fully realised, talent migration stops; it’s a pattern which has been seen repeatedly.

He mentioned that in the 1980s, the Japanese refused to believe that Japan had reached parity with the West. Similarly, in Korea it happened in the 1990s. He predicts that even in 2035, with a per capita income of $10,000, India will likely feel sad about being far behind. “The last stage of catch up happens quickly over a decade (witness China is the last decade) but the foundations have to be laid over many previous decades and those previous decades feel like a slog. We are slogging through that now in India.”

People shared mixed opinions on this, from frowning on the Indian brain drain to appreciating a different perspective of outflux during India’s rapid development.

He wraps up his post on a positive note that India’s rising talent migration is a sign of India’s economic strength.

One user commented that in order to achieve $10k per capita GDP by 2035, India’s GDP needs to grow at an average of 14% per year.

Another user showed support and wrote “It's good to see a very different perspective. Sir, your perspective comes from looking for young talent moving or migrating to the USA due to higher aspirations during rapid development.”