India has the talent. So why do so many still choose to build elsewhere?

5 min readUpdated: Jul 24, 2026 07:59 PM Every Indian who studies abroad eventually faces the same question: return, or stay? I graduated from Harvard Business School last month, standing at exactly that crossroads.
When I told people I was considering returning to India, the response was remarkably consent. “If you want to challenge yourself, if you want to build something that matters, you have to be in the Bay Area,” many said. “It’s where the future is being built.”
I disagreed. I pointed to Indian innovations like UPI and companies like Zerodha. But these conversations led to an uncomfortable question: why haven’t these innovations found widespread global adoption?
So I put that question to every professor who taught me in my final semester: Name one Indian company or product you use regularly, or consider world-class.
I never got an answer.
The examples we celebrate reveal India’s challenges. Quick commerce platforms have built sophicated logics networks, demand forecasting systems and operational capabilities that have redefined urban convenience. Yet their success is an operational achievement, not a technological one. These platforms also benefit from India’s relatively low-cost labour market.
The same applies to India’s IT sector. Companies like Infosys and TCS are among the most recognisable names in the US. But they largely deliver services. The sector itself was built on labour-cost arbitrage and now faces disruptions from AI. According to a 2025 NITI Aayog report, up to two million IT jobs could be displaced 2031.
Similarly, when Indian leaders rise to the top of global technology companies, we celebrate their achievements. Kunal Shah’s appointment as Global Head of WhatsApp is the latest example. India is WhatsApp’s largest market, with around 800 million users. Meta chose an Indian entrepreneur to lead its next phase of growth, but the value continues to accrue to MetaStory continues below this ad
We build. Others own. We consume. Others reap the rewards.
Meanwhile, countries such as China have produced companies like Tencent, Alibaba, teDance and D – businesses whose products are globally recognised and used well beyond the domestic market.
Building world-class products is not only a question of ambition but also of capital allocation: directing financial and human resources towards the people most likely to build them.

Asking the right question
When I asked two next-generation business leaders in India what kept them awake at night, both gave the same answer: finding exceptional talent to build with.Story continues below this ad
That made me realise India faces two related challenges. The first is ensuring that talented people who stay have the mentorship, capital and ecosystem to fulfil their potential. The second is understanding why so many ambitious Indians continue to build their careers abroad. The latter is more widely discussed, with a 2024 research, Brain Drain in India: Causes, Consequences, and Potential Solutions, estimating $50 billion in foregone GDP due to the brain drain every year.Indian-origin leaders today head some of the world’s largest companies. Indians hold 71 percent of all American skilled worker visas. That is a testament to the quality of Indian talent. But it also raises a larger question: what is it about places like Silicon Valley that enable people to lead and build global companies?
Over time, I realised I had been asking the wrong question. The debate isn’t whether ambitious Indians should stay or return. It’s what Silicon Valley has figured out that India can learn from.
Many successful companies in America have been built early employees leaving to start their own firms: PayPal, Palantir, SpaceX, Tesla, and now OpenAI and Anthropic. Each generation compounds the last.
The structural reasons are no mystery. Access to capital is deeper. Regulation is often more predictable. Failure is less intimidating.Story continues below this ad
Why this column
For me, the answer to whether I should stay or return is deeply personal. It is shaped not just career opportunities but the people I grew up with, the strangers I crossed paths with every morning, and those who stood me. That is what made accepting an opportunity at Tesla such a difficult decision.
For now, I remain part of the brain drain I once hoped to reverse. But the question I asked my professors still stays with me.
India doesn’t need to become another Silicon Valley. But if we want to build more products and companies that the world adopts, not just those that succeed within India’s borders, we can learn from the ecosystems that have done it repeatedly.
This column is my attempt to understand those lessons.
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Anay Singh was born and raised in Mumbai before moving to the United States to pursue his MBA at Harvard Business School in 2024. He has worked across corporate India, including Mahindra’s Group Strategy Office, and India’s startup ecosystem, with companies including Dream11, BookMyShow and PharmEasy. After graduating in May, he joined Tesla’s finance team in Palo Alto. Through Bay to Bay, he examines what India can learn from Silicon Valley about building globally competitive companies and institutions. … Read More

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