New Delhi: When Sabeer Bhatia speaks about India, it isn’t with disdain. Rather, the co-founder of Hotmail says India is a miracle waiting to happen but is held back by a lack of critical thinking skills and undue focus on vanity metrics.
He now finds himself in the internet’s crosshairs after questioning India’s rise to the fourth-largest economy.
“GDP is an irrelevant milestone. Because we are celebrating the idea of India being richer, but the idea is not the reality,” said Bhatia, adding that the country should be celebrating better infrastructure, better services, and better quality of life instead. “If all those are declining, you’re selling the wrong story and people are buying the wrong story.”
Bhatia was reflecting on the fallout from his recent posts on X in an exclusive interview with ThePrint.
On 28 May, he questioned the cheer around projections of India overtaking Japan’s GDP:
Infosys co-founder Mohandas Pai called Bhatia an ‘economic refugee’ who left India and had no role in the country’s progress. This backlash, said Bhatia, reveals a national anxiety around anything critical.
“Are you trying to shut me up? Are you trying to say my point of view is irrelevant? I mean, this is no way of winning a debate,” he said, exasperated by the level of discourse he has witnessed over the last few days. “Are you shutting me up so that ideas don’t move forward?”
But it’s only in recent months that Bhatia has become vocal on social media. Until this year, he maintained a low profile, limiting himself to thought pieces on LinkedIn or promoting conferences he took part in on X.
But since January 2025, his online presence – and subsequently disagreements with Indians – exploded. Now, the entrepreneur posts almost daily on topics ranging from Artificial Intelligence to startups and the Indian economy.
People who disagree with him label him as a ‘one-hit wonder’ or question whether he has done anything useful since Hotmail.
“It seems like a national pastime to attack national figures,” said Bhatia, calling the personal attacks ‘juvenile and childlike’.
“I don’t want to fight with anyone. I’m not anti-BJP, and I’m not pro-Congress. I just want the people of India to be smarter, every single one of them to make better decisions.”
‘India needs critical thinking’
Critical thinking is central to Bhatia’s new startup, ShowReel. Launched in 2020, the interactive learning platform teaches entrepreneurs to look beyond the obvious.
“Email had been around since 1969, but we made it available through a web browser,” said Bhatia, explaining how innovation can only be achieved by questioning the status quo. “This is what I want to teach everyone in India – critical thinking. And when you think critically, you ask questions.”
When Hotmail was sold to Microsoft for an estimated $400 million back in 1997, Bhatia was quietly celebrated back home as one of the first few Indian immigrants who amassed a fortune on foreign soil. Having studied in Pune and Bengaluru before enrolling in Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani, he was part of a wave of immigrants in the 1980s who moved to the United States in search of opportunities. In 1996, the Chandigarh-born American citizen founded Hotmail, which disrupted the email industry at the time.
After Hotmail, he dabbled in ventures ranging from telecom software to blockchain, but none reached the same heights as his inaugural startup.
Despite India’s progress since Bhatia left the country, the entrepreneur in him is hungry to see disruption. He isn’t happy with small improvements in a country that has vast potential.
Irked by what he calls vanity metrics like GDP, Bhatia argued that we should focus on median per capita GDP instead, a more accurate reflection of the country’s progress. A pure per capita calculation can get distorted by the top five per cent of the population generating a disproportionate amount of income.
He latched on to the ‘inflation in disguise’ portion of his controversial 28 May X post, expounding that in India, everything is becoming more expensive, particularly real estate. Bhatia added that India is in an asset-based economy mindset, from which it needs to snap out of quickly.
“All Western economies have become intellectual property-based economies; they are no longer asset based,” said Bhatia, referring to how the largest companies in the US are now internet, technology, and software companies rather than manufacturing ones.
“Why are we not part of the new economy? Because we have killed critical thinking.”
Also read: India’s GDP victory over Japan is still a year away. Here’s why
Making India better
The irony that Bhatia’s success is celebrated and criticised in equal measure is not lost on him. Indians call him one of their own when it’s in their favour, but shun him when their views don’t align with his. Someone even tagged Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar on one of his posts, asking him to revoke Bhatia’s Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) status.
“The perception in our brains is that India is always looked down upon as a country. Somehow, we’ve got this inferiority complex because we were ruled by the British,” he said, underscoring that ‘tribalism’ should be shunned. India is part of a global economy. “Don’t make me a hero one day and a zero the next because I’m giving you good advice.”
Bhatia also rejected the notion that India will become a stronger nation if more money is generated. The multi-millionaire termed it ‘fictitious’ to think more money will drastically change fortunes, before turning introspective and questioning the short time humans have on Earth.
“Our life on the planet is limited, right? Maybe 80 years,” said Bhatia, adding that this time should be used toward making life better for our children, community, and country. “Are we answering that question? Are we leaving India better or worse off for our children.”
Despite the fallout, Bhatia remains committed to engaging with India and helping change its future. To date, he continues to visit his native country, most recently in April 2025, when he participated in a TEDx event at IIT Delhi. Bhatia is clear – nothing can take away from his love for the country.
“India has the greatest unrealised potential on planet Earth. But we need to stop projecting an image of India that is better than it is,” he said. “Don’t just put paint on a car and tell me it’s brand new.”
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)
Last time Sabeer Bhatia did some was 20 years ago . I think India has moved on high time he did .
Sabeer Bhatia and Shekhar Gupta have one thing in common. Guess what?
Also, both are very distinguished members of the Left-liberal ecosystem. No wonder they pat each other’s backs.
The Print is slowly but surely turning into an useless and silly media platform.
Why suddenly this urge to interview Sabeer Bhatia? Because he wants his two minuted of fame?
Or you guys at The Print upto something devious and insidious? Seems like the latter case.
Sabeer is a new entrant to the liberal-secular club. And you guys are displaying your loyalty to the cabal and commitment towards the “cause” by providing him space/coverage on your platform.