‘Bye, bye India and reservation’: Tax consultant flags crisis as top talent emigrates

A post about an investor leaving India has reignited debate over the country’s growing brain drain, with tax consultant Madhav Pangarkar highlighting how tens of thousands of highly skilled professionals, engineers, and doctors depart each year.

The post, which bid “bye bye India” and blamed issues like reservation, was shared by Pangarkar on LinkedIn to underscore a larger trend: India continues to lose some of its top talent to opportunities abroad.

“Sixty to seventy-five thousand engineers and doctors leave every year. Sixty-two percent of top JEE rankers fly abroad. And we lose $2 billion to just IT brain drain,” Pangarkar noted in his commentary.

Government and academic data back up those figures. The Ministry of External Affairs and labor reports estimate 60,000–75,000 highly skilled Indian professionals emigrate annually. When student migration is included, the scale is far greater: nearly 1.2 million Indian students left to study overseas in 2023 alone, many in engineering, medicine, and IT.

Elite talent is at the forefront of this outflow. Studies show about 62% of top IIT and JEE Advanced rankers pursue higher education or employment abroad, particularly in the U.S., U.K., and Canada.

The financial hit is significant. According to the United Nations Development Programme, India’s IT brain drain alone costs the country around $2 billion annually, without accounting for professionals in medicine, science, and other fields.

The drivers are complex. Beyond economic opportunities and higher pay abroad, analysts cite systemic issues within India — corruption, bureaucratic red tape, and limited research pathways — as push factors. Social and political divides, including debates around reservation and meritocracy, also play into the dissatisfaction voiced by many young professionals.

While remittances from overseas Indians remain a major contributor to India’s economy, critics argue the long-term loss of intellectual and technical capital hampers the country’s ability to innovate and compete globally.