As with trade, US President Donald Trump has introduced arbitrary visa and immigration rules, thereby reigniting the decades-old “brain drain” question with new urgency: Can India finally reverse it?
Washington’s recent announcement that new H-1B visa petitions will require employers to make a payment of up to $ 100,000, or roughly Rs 85-90 lakh, has unsettled professionals across the world. Although this and other visa restriction measures are touted as part of Make America Great Again (MAGA) to protect American jobs, the long-term effectiveness and global consequences of these measures appear highly uncertain.
Following Trump’s 19 September proclamation imposing a $100,000 fee on H-1B visas, it was later clarified that the new fee would only apply to new, one-time applications. A recent official guideline issued by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services department confirmed that the proclamation “does not apply to any previously issued and currently valid H-1B visas, or any petitions submitted before 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on September 21, 2025”.
Loss of American institutions
The US government has justified the fee as a cost-sharing mechanism to discourage excessive dependence on the foreign workforce. One strong argument against the new charge is that it will reduce opportunities for highly skilled migrants, particularly from countries like India. While the rule does not formally distinguish between applicants who studied in the US and those applying directly from abroad, in practice, the latter may find migration costlier and more complex.
The economic burden of the H-1B fee is expected to fall primarily on employers. However, experts fear that companies facing higher hiring costs could respond by curbing recruitment, freezing salaries, reducing emoluments, recovering the fee from the employee, or shifting operations overseas. Either way, the outcome would likely disadvantage both American businesses that rely on specialised talent and foreign professionals who seek legitimate opportunities in the US.
The damage could extend beyond individuals. The US’ innovation ecosystem has long thrived on the intellectual energy of immigrants, especially from India. From Silicon Valley’s engineers to scientists at NASA and the National Institutes of Health, foreign talent has played a central role in advancing American science and technology. Restricting that flow sends an unfortunate message at a time when global progress depends on collaboration rather than isolation.
International students contribute more than $ 40 billion to the US economy and help sustain hundreds of thousands of jobs. Many private universities rely on double-digit tuition fees from abroad. Mid-tier US higher education institutions already face demographic shifts and higher borrowing costs, and feel enrolment swings. If Indian demand softens because of the visa restrictions and job opportunities, financial stress will grow fastest in that tier.
Since the end of World War II, US universities, government institutions such as the Pentagon and the National Science Foundation, and private industry have invested heavily in research and innovation. No doubt, much of this success has come from global cooperation and the contributions of foreign talent—not as a replacement for American innovation, but as an enhancement of it. Policies that restrict the movement of skilled workers and experts overlook how modern knowledge economies actually function. Innovation thrives in open systems where ideas, people, and institutions interact freely.
However, rather than viewing these developments purely as a setback, India can treat them as an opportunity to rethink its strategy for retaining talent and intellectual capacity. Brain drain, the exodus of skilled professionals, was a significant worry for India in the 1960s and 1970s. This resulted in a deficiency of talent in essential sectors such as healthcare, engineering, and technology—areas vital for a developing nation like India. Today, with 35.4 million non-resident Indians (NRIs) and People of Indian Origins (PIOs), including OCIs, Indian has the world’s largest diaspora. Every year, 2.5 million (25 lakh) Indians immigrate overseas, making India the nation with the highest annual number of emigrants in the world.
Indian doctors, engineers, and other highly capable professionals often leave the country in search of better pay, career prospects and research opportunities. Lack of higher education options, research funding and facilities, and fewer opportunities for career advancement contribute to this exodus. In some cases, the perception that merit is overlooked due to reservation also drives migration to other countries.
Reversing brain drain is not about just stopping people from leaving, as was done in the early sixties. The government at the time seriously considered a proposal by economist Prof. J.N. Bhagwati, an Indian-born American citizen, in his journal article. He proposed to subject those who emigrate to a special tax on the income they earn in developed countries.
However, what can really work is building an environment where citizens want to stay and contribute productively. Mere election promises, cliched platitudes, or “no action, only talk” cannot reverse brain drain.
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How to retain talent
We need to focus on three priorities.
First, there is an urgent need to invest heavily in research in universities and higher education institutions (HEI) by increasing autonomy, prioritising research-based pedagogy, international collaboration, and creating an industry-institution interface.
Second, there must be reforms in the policy-research initiatives. Academic research often remains confined to journals and conferences. Scholars should be given structured avenues in governance to contribute to public policy through think tanks, government advisory boards, and fellowships in government departments. Research output can gain real value only when it is field-tested. Even failed experiments expand collective understanding and inform better policymaking.
Third, we should encourage both domestic and international firms to establish research and development centres and technology parks, through tax rebates and other incentives. With its large pool of skilled talent, affordable digital infrastructure, and improving logistics, India could emerge as a global destination for applied research. This, in turn, should facilitate the manufacturing sector to adopt newer technologies and encourage revenue sharing with research institutions and centres of excellence (COE) in HEIs. In keeping with the policy of the Maharashtra government, Mumbai Vidyapeeth has instituted a 45 thousand Sq. ft. Centre of Excellence on its campus. Institutions like the PAN IIT Alumni can take a lead in this direction.
Visa and immigration restrictions will not automatically result in ‘negating pull factor’ and in retaining talent and capabilities in India. The government and the industry need to invest seriously in education, research, and automation of the core industry through wider collaboration and intellectual autonomy to counter the ‘push factor’ in migration. What poses as a restrictive US policy could become the catalyst for an era of innovation, upgradation, indigenisation, and productive talent retention at home.
Seshadri Chari is the former editor of ‘Organiser’. He tweets @seshadrichari. Views are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)