What the H-1B visa angst reveals about India

The Global Innovation Index which ranks the world’s most innovative countries does not usually make for headlines since it is a fairly predictable list. But the 2025 index grabbed attention because for the first time China broke into the top 10, the only middle-income economy to do so. It should have made us sit up just as the developed world is doing. But this news did not catch media attention in India, possibly because we came in at a lowly 38 on the list and more likely because the nation was completely caught up in the angst of the H-1B visa problem with the US. And herein lies one of the biggest ironies of India’s development story: the government actively promotes the exodus of its tech talent while doing precious little to foster an innovation culture at home. Without this, India would be unable to catch up with China’s technological leaps that are reshaping the world's innovation landscape.

Let’s take a close look at the H-1B visa issue. These are work permits issued by the US for skilled workers, primarily technology and engineering professionals, for employers to hire the best global talent. Donald Trump’s announcement of a massive hike in the visa fee to US $100,000—it is normally less than $2,000—has so upset India that it has taken over much of the mind and media space. While the H-1B visa is a passport to professional success at the individual level, particularly in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields in the US, and offers career pathways that are largely unavailable in India, the country’s stance on it begs a fundamental question. Why does India celebrate its brain drain while most countries try to stem it?

No other nation promotes the export of its technical talent nurtured at a high cost to itself as assiduously as India does, turning it a matter of international prestige. New Delhi pulls out all stops on the H-1B, straining every diplomatic nerve to ensure that the number of such visas is kept steady if not increased annually. Much funds are also expended on lobbying the US Congress at all levels on this issue. Now, Trump has thrown a spanner in the works by claiming that these visas undercut Americans in the job market and that the new measure will ensure that only the brightest and best are hired by US companies. Since few US companies are unlikely to shell out $100,000 on each new visa, the stakes have changed dramatically for India.

So far, Indians have been the biggest beneficiaries of the three-year H-1B visa. In the 2024 financial year they secured 283,397 visas, accounting for 71 per cent of the total approvals. China came a poor second with 46,680 visas which is less than 12 per cent of the total. Other countries like Canada and the Philippines barely made a dent with four per cent approvals in the region of 5,000 and 4,000 each. The reaction of India and China to the fee hike is telling, revealing as it does the sharply different development strategies adopted by the two countries.

New Delhi has been rattled by Trump’s sudden new rule which appears to be targeted at India. An official spokesperson has touched upon the “humanitarian consequences” of the visa fee hike while dwelling on the “skilled talent mobility which has contributed enormously to technology development, innovation and wealth creation in the US and India". Skilled Indian professionals have certainly contributed in a big way to US development by integrating themselves into the innovation ecosystem but the same benefits have not accrued to India. Hardly any of the talented professionals who have made it big in the US have returned to India to catalyse innovation in their home country. What the official position is that India will remain engaged with all concerned to sort out the issue. While the angst continues in India it is worthwhile to look at China’s response. Beijing has remained silent so far. Instead of commenting on H-1B visa it has come up with a counter—the K visa which is designed to bring in young STEM professionals to accelerate its technological advancement. It is Beijing’s way of saying it can fight on Trump’s terms.

The latest initiative is in line with China’s well-crafted policy of attracting talent to the country starting with the Thousand Talents Plan launched in 2008, to attract well-known overseas Chinese and foreign scientists, academics and entrepreneurs back to China. The scheme was hugely successful because of several reasons. Lavish funding was certainly the big draw but more attractive was the freedom of research given to scientists to advance their projects—and even theories. The scheme, dropped after alarmed Western countries accused China of intellectual property theft and espionage, was quickly replaced by other schemes to get highly skilled Chinese back home in the wake of US export curbs on advanced chips used in semiconductors. China has been able to draw Nobel Prize winners, some who received the MacArthur Foundation’s Genius grants and other top drawer scientists to its campuses, all of whom played a critical role in shaping the country's growth. China’s focus on cultivating high-level talent has a long history, and is marked by a special focus on bringing back Chinese geniuses who enjoy world renown. One such example is Shiing-Shen Chern, a brilliant mathematician and one of the top geometricians of the 20th century, who taught at the top US universities but also came back periodically to set up three mathematics institutes in China. He tutored some of the best brains in China who have left a deep impact in the world of mathematics.

India has neither the vision nor a policy to bring back Indian talent much less world renowned names in the STEM sector. A few months ago Nobel Prize winner Venkatraman Ramakrishnan was forthright when asked about India’s ability to attract global talent. He was quoted thus by The Hindu: “I do not see India as a general magnet for international science. Neither the funding, the infrastructure, nor the general environment in India is attractive for top-level international scientists to leave the US to work in India.”

Here is a more hopeful thought. If the new H-1B visa fee kicks in for new applicants, would it act as a catalyst to turning India a more potent centre of innovation? Maybe, if India learns to think like China—far into the future.

This column was originally published in the October 16-31, 2025 print edition of Down To Earth