India is at the threshold of a big technological revolution. The adoption of artificial intelligence is going to be a matter of time, and India—along with its vast number of engineers, data scientists, and multilingual users—will be the leading country. But still the old issue is there: brain-drain. Industry estimates indicate that about 15% of the world's AI talent comes from India—however, a significant portion of this talent goes to other countries.

The Opportunity: India’s AI Moment

With the global competition on AI intelligence, India is a very attractive option. On the one hand, the government and private sector are working together to develop home-grown large-language-models (LLMs)—AI systems that will be on par with global offerings like. On the other hand, India has a unique advantage: the ability to process several languages simultaneously. 

This means that the eventual Indian model will not only cater to global markets but also reach out to rural areas, local businesses, government programs, and a whole population that is usually neglected by global monolingual models.

The Challenge: Why Talent Still Leaves

Despite the bright side of the scenario, India is losing its native talent. Here are the reasons:

• A well-defined career path with better pay, research facilities, global exposure and better-defined career tracks, is the main reason many AI professionals from India migrate abroad.

• There is often a gap between academia and industry in India—there is strong research but the ties to high-end commercial AI and deep-tech startups are weaker.

• The public funding for advanced AI research in India is still modest compared to the funding at the leading global labs.

• Indian AI talent is more often than not put into global outsourcing or services roles, and not in core research or product-innovation roles.

A venture capitalist remarks: "The tech talent pool of India is one of the most important assets but still, more and more talents are leaving for better returns." He insists that unless India not only makes an AI ecosystem but also keeps and gives its top-tier talent the rewards, the future of leadership will be just that—a future.

What India Must Do Now

To go from being a supplier of talent to an AI innovation hub, India has to hurry up and tackle the issue on different fronts at once:

1. Fund AI Research Broadly

 Set up AI centers of excellence not only in the primary metropolitan areas but also in the tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Promote interdisciplinary research—AI + linguistics, AI + social sciences, AI + local business usages.

2. Make Staying Attractive

 Besides constructing infrastructure, India should make it worth the while of the top researchers to stay. This implies fellowships, salaries that are competitive (equivalent to those in global labs), PhDs with industry linkages, incentives for returning researchers, and career paths that merge research and product development.

3. Support Deep-Tech Startups

 Propel funding into AI-startups that solve local problems for the large customer base: multilingual chatbots for rural businesses, AI for Indian health care, and agriculture-AI adapted to local conditions. These startups empower the skillful people to produce valuable goods in their country—not just provide services.

4. Build International Linkages

 Ask Indian-origin researchers who are abroad to join (even virtually) the initiative of the country and contribute their expertise. Establish a partnership with the world's best AI-hubs. Set up exchange programs. This not only transfers skill but also elevates India’s position in the global AI map.

5. Showcase India’s Ambition

 India's economy is moving towards the $10 trillion future. Khare says, “That means the chances offered here will be of worldwide competition.” Platforms like the 2026 Global AI Summit can not only forecast India's intention to be a leader—rather than a follower—but also enhance its power.

India’s Multilingual Leverage

Language diversity, cultural context, and local usability are the main factors where global AI models usually fail. But Indian AI can conquer the battlefield here. An AI that is Indian by origin and understands not only grammatically but culturally Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi—can be a game changer.

• It can assist regional businesses in their mother tongue.

• It can help government programs and rural populations who do not speak English.

• It can give rise to multilingual education, local language voice assistants, and inclusive AI which can help people in different digital worlds.

This implies that AI is not only a commercial product but a development tool. Furthermore, it does not only make Indian talent relevant but also necessary for the new ways of solving global problems.

The Stakes and the Opportunity

India is not only a source of tech labor for global companies but it is also on its way to becoming an AI powerful nation if it does not let its talent go abroad. The scenario that once appeared inevitable—brain-drain—now seems to be a failure of policy and ecosystem that can be rectified.

India needs to invest in its intellectuals, rewards and create an environment that is conducive to innovation—not in some other place but right here. As Rajat Khare states, “The government has been actively promoting AI… but the real test will be how well we retain and nurture talent. That will decide whether we lead or follow.”

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

Q1. Why is brain-drain so important for India’s AI ambitions?

Because even though India has a large pool of engineering talent, a significant portion of it moves abroad or works in low-end outsourced positions. India, being the birthplace of AI models and deep-tech products—not just the service area—wants that talent to stay, innovate and exhaust their creative abilities globally, thus building India as a strong and soon to be leading AI hub.

Q2. Will India really compete with global AI labs like OpenAI or Google’s AI division?

India might not be able to duplicate them exactly—but the power is in doing things differently: local language models, regional use-cases scaling, global ambition combined with local relevance. If the ecosystem aligns—talent stayed, infrastructure built—India’s AI leadership is a very possible outcome.

Q3. What kinds of startups should India focus on to retain AI talent?

Startups that are working on solutions for both local and global problems: AI in healthcare, agriculture, education in local languages; voice assistants in regional languages; business automation in the region with AI; multilingual customer-service bots; deep-tech research in natural language processing for Indian languages.

Q4. How can academia and industry collaborate better in India?

By joint research programmes, university industry-funded labs, PhD programmes matching with startup product-goals and by creating career tracks through which researchers can change between academia and product roles in startups.

Q5. What can policymakers do to make staying in India attractive for AI talent?

Provide fellowships and grants for the best researchers; offer salaries that are competitive; fund the layout of GPU clusters and the establishment of LLM training centres; support the return of talent programmes; provide further investment in deep-tech? Promote global partnerships and exchange programmes.

Source: https://www.businesstoday.in/impact-feature/story/rajat-khare-believes-india-can-lead-the-worlds-ai-revolution-by-just-stopping-brain-drain-478096-2025-05-28