Why IIT graduates leave country to play top roles in USA Tech advancement? (2024)

Hyderabad: USA imports oil from Saudi Arabia, Cars from Japan, and TVs from Korea. What does the USA import from India? The smartest people from India. Yes, Indians are the smartest, most successful, and influential ethnic group in the United States of America.

Most of the successful Indians in the USA are graduates of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) which has seven major campuses across India. Indian IITs provide world-class chemical, electrical, and computer engineers.

IIT has one of the most vigorous curriculum in the world. Getting admission here is the dream of nearly every schoolboy in India. With a population of 1.25 billion, the competition to get admission in these premier institutions is ferocious. A student follows a grueling study schedule for at least two years before attempting the IIT JEE entrance exam.

The first Indian Institute of Technology was established in Kharagpur in May 1950. Within a decade, four more IITS were set up in Bombay, Madras, Kanpur, and Delhi to cater to the growing technological demands of the growing Indian economy.

The impact of Indian IIT graduates on the USA Technological revolution is far greater than most people realized. There is no surprise that dozens of IT companies come to India to recruit graduates from Indian IITs every year offering lucrative salaries.

When an American interviewer asks a group of young students of IIT Bombay as to how many of them would like to go to the USA. Their answer surprised the lady interviewer as almost all of them say they wanted to go to the USA. “But it is not supposed to be so,” she commented. She is right.

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister did not foresee that these students would migrate to foreign shores once they graduate.

Jawaharlal Nehru, the chief architect behind the creation of the IITs, had envisaged these institutes as a cornerstones in building the industrial, scientific and technological edifice of the nation. He had hoped that these institutes would provide valid and vital inputs in building huge dams, power plants and industrial production units and so spearhead the technological force of the nation.

In other words, these institutes were established with an express desire to see the nation on the path of progress and advancement and provide quality employment to graduates of these premier institutes.

In his first convocation address at IIT Kharagpur, Nehru said: “We take all the trouble to put up this expensive Institute and train up people here, and then, if we do not utilize the services of those people, then there is something wrong about the governmental apparatus or Planning Commission or whoever is supposed to deal with this matter. Such state of affairs can only be described as fantastically stupid because one trains people for certain ends and then wastes them, not even for a moment thinking in terms of the individuals employment and his living, etc.”

It was evident from Nehru’s address that the IITs were meant to produce quality engineers who would have a greater role to play in nation building.

Since 1953, nearly twenty five to thirty thousand IITians have settled in the USA. Some famous IITians in the USA are Vinod Khosla, Co-founder, Sun Microsystems, Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google, Rajan Gupta, former Managing Director, McKinsey, Subhash Khot, Computer scientist and Rolf Nevanlinna Prize winner, Rajeev Motwani, winner of Godel Prize.

Such a large scale migration of India’s top brains, after they get graduate on India’s resources, to foreign shores where they not only thrive but occupy top positions indicate, in Nehru’s words, There is something wrong about the governmental apparatus or Planning Commission or whoever is supposed to deal with this matter.”