IIT Brain Drain Isn’t Success. It’s a ₹3 Lakh Crore State-Funded Surrender to America
- Dr. Deepessh Divaakaran
- 1 day ago
- 11 min read
Updated: 14 hours ago
India has spent over ₹3 lakh crore on elite education, only to lose its brightest minds to foreign economies. This article on IIT brain drain exposes the harsh truth behind remittance myths, talent loss, and the urgent need for national retention policies.
India has spent over ~₹3 lakh crore nurturing world-class talent in IITs, NITs, and similar institutions of national importance.
Yet our top minds often leave — and we console ourselves with the myth of remittance.
This article dismantles that illusion and calls for a radical policy shift to retain talent, foster innovation, and reclaim national destiny.
This article was born from a viral LinkedIn post I shared, a raw, unapologetic critique of India’s brain drain and the misplaced pride we attach to it.
Contents in the Article
What began as a spontaneous reflection exploded into a national conversation, garnering over 2.5 million impressions, 20,000+ reactions, 3,000+ comments, and even coverage by Business Today.
My inbox was flooded, with support from professors, students, and bureaucrats... and threats from those too comfortable with the status quo.
That post wasn’t anti-IITian.
It was anti-system.
Anti-rot.
And this article now expands that rebellion, backed with facts, numbers, and ideas to shake the foundations of how we think about education, nationhood, and talent.
Competition, Quotas & Where Our Minds Go (The reality of IIT Brain Drain)
13–17 Lakh Aspirants for 17,740 IIT Seats
In JEE Main 2025, nearly 13.8‑16.7 lakh students registered, and around 12.5 lakh appeared in the exam.
Only the top ~2.7 lakh qualified to take JEE Advanced.
Final admissions are for 17,740 seats across all 23 IITs.
Takeaway: That’s over 1,000 students chasing each seat—a brutal filter that rewards coaching-driven replicability over creativity.
Seats Filled vs Talent Wasted
23 IITs produce about 16,000 B.Tech grads annually.
The remaining ~260,000 “qualified” students get offers from NITs, IIITs, IISc, and others, but many end up in private colleges or drop out.
Industry estimates say only 5–10% of engineering grads come from these premier institutes.
How Many Leave India?
A 2023 NBER study found 36% of top 1,000 JEE rankers moved abroad; among the top 100 rankers, it was 62%.
Earlier figures were higher—up to 70% in the 1990s .
Today’s breeds are still fleeing, even as we build more institutes.
Why Don’t Top Grads Join DRDO/ISRO/Ordnance Factories?
RTI data shows a staggering only ~2% of ISRO’s engineers come from IITs, and ~0.5% from NITs.
The remaining 98% come from lesser-known engineering colleges.
The reason? Pay disparity.
IIT grads expect ₹25 lakh+ CTC; government roles at DRDO/ISRO offer ₹6–9 lakh.
Unfilled Government R&D Positions
Across DRDO, ISRO, BARC, and other national labs, vacancies often exceed 30–40%.
High entry requirements clash with low pay and bureaucratic delays—making these jobs unattractive to top-tier talent.
What This Tells Us
Hyper‑competitive entry drives out creativity: JEE warping students into test-taking machines.
Dropout from national service: Engineers land at private firms or abroad, not in labs defending the nation.
Significant brain drain persists: Despite more IITs, investment, and awareness—too many still leave.
Systemic policy failure, not individual failure: We train, but don’t retain. We fund, but don’t secure.
Now ask yourself:
Are we building brilliance—or just exporting it?
Fees, Subsidies & the Subsidy Myth
What Do Students Actually Pay?
General category (Gen/EWS/OBC > ₹5 LPA):
Tuition alone is ₹1 lakh/semester (~₹8–13 lakh for 4 years), plus hostel & mess — ₹2–3 lakh total—bringing total fees to ~₹10–13 lakh.
OBC/EWS (₹1–5 LPA income):
Tuition drops to ₹33,333/semester — only ~₹5 lakh for the full course.
SC/ST/PwD and low-income Gen EWS (<₹1 LPA):
Zero tuition; only nominal semester charges (~₹8,150 total per year).
Only ~25% of IIT students pay the full ₹1 lakh/semester tuition.
The rest are heavily subsidized via reservation or scholarships.
What Does the Government Actually Spend?
The average annual cost per IIT student is ₹5.2 lakh per semester — five times the ₹1 lakh tuition fee.
More recent estimates (IIT Madras) suggest ₹18.7 lakh per student per year, including capital and faculty costs.
Even when students pay ₹10–13 lakh across 4 years, the govt spends ₹20–80 lakh per student.
Why “Fees Paid” Is Misleading?
Subsidies cover reservation categories (~50% seats), scholarships, rural outreach, and merit support.
Even full-fee paying students cover only a fraction—the rest is borne by Indian taxpayers.
This isn’t a tuition debate—it’s a subsidy debate. And most students benefit from it.
The Creativity Crisis
The JEE system prioritizes rote learning over creativity, fuelling coaching dependency.
Many who flourish within this system lack the structural support, mentorship, or policy incentives to stick around and innovate in India.
With full subsidies and global exit options, the incentive to stay and solve India’s problems diminishes.
Category | Student Pays (4 years) | Govt Spends (annual avg) |
Gen full-fee | ₹10–13 lakh | ₹20–80 lakh |
OBC/EWS | ₹5 lakh | ₹20–80 lakh |
SC/ST/PwD, Low-inc. | ₹0–1 lakh | ₹20–80 lakh |
The Subtle Shift of IIT Brain Drain: From Dreamers to Dollar-Chasers
When a teenager cracks the JEE, they don’t just win a seat at an IIT.
They enter a world that rewires their thinking — not maliciously, but methodically.
Over four years, the language of aspiration transforms from “serving the nation” to “maximizing the offer.”
And that’s not their fault. It’s what the system trains them to do.
From Bharat to Bay Area: How the Mindset Evolves
In the first year, most students arrive wide-eyed — many from humble backgrounds, rural belts, Tier 2 cities. Some are sons and daughters of farmers, auto drivers, schoolteachers. They’ve made it against all odds.
But soon, the campus culture takes over:
Hall of fame = Highest package.
Idol = Seniors who cracked Google, Amazon, Meta.
Campus pride = Placement figures, not patents.
Research? National Labs? “Bro, no scope.”
Slowly but surely, the soul of service is replaced by salary symbols.
Not because they’re greedy — but because they’re conditioned to believe value = package.
The Poorer You Are, the Faster You Run
For a student from a low-income background:
Loan repayment pressure is real.
Family expectations are enormous.
“Settling abroad” is survival, not betrayal.
They don’t reject India.
They just don’t see a viable life here — because no one shows them how.
Our institutions teach quantum physics, but not economic patriotism.
What IITs Don't Teach: National Interest as a Career Path
Where’s the induction into:
Working with DRDO, ISRO, BARC?
Building for Bharat’s rural tech needs?
Innovating for climate, health, railways, education?
In most IITs, such jobs are seen as consolation prizes.
If you say “I want to join HAL or NHAI or NIC”, You’ll often hear: “Bro, your rank was too high for that.”
That’s the tragedy.
Merit doesn’t trickle into national service.
Empathy Is Not Absence of Critique
Let’s be clear:
We empathize deeply with students burdened by inequality.
We respect their choices in a broken system.
But unless we speak truth to this culture —India will keep investing in its best minds,
Only to watch them build someone else’s future.
The Celebration of Salaries, Not Service
There’s a cruel irony in how India celebrates success.
A student from IIT bags a ₹1.2 crore offer from Google, and the whole country explodes in applause. News channels run prime-time coverage.
Local politicians felicitate them.
Schools put up their posters.
YouTube thumbnails scream: “How I Cracked the ₹1 Cr Package!”
But a student who joins DRDO or ISRO?
No headlines.
No garlands.
No glory.
Media Worships the West, Not the Mission
India’s mainstream media has built a success template that worships foreign validation:
“He’s in the US!” = genius.
“She’s working on rockets for India?” = no big deal.
Even the stories that should inspire patriotism get buried beneath glamour.
A DRDO recruit might be working on next-gen missile tech, but unless they move to Tesla, nobody cares.
Families Mirror This Madness
Parents tell their kids:
"Join Google, beta. Nation-building can wait."
Friends whisper:
"You got that rank and you’re joining BHEL? Bro, what a waste."
Mentors hint:
"Don’t be emotional. Be practical."
This social mindset turns national service into social suicide.
Choosing to serve India becomes an act of rebellion — against your own network.
Patriotism Is Punished, Not Prized
In some IITs, students who opt for lower-paying roles in India are mocked or pitied.
“You’re going to ISRO? So no foreign trip, bro?”
“Didn’t get placed or what?”
That’s what we’ve come to.
A ₹6 lakh DRDO job protecting our skies is seen as a failure,
While a ₹60 lakh job in a chatbot company in Palo Alto is nationwide success.
And yet we wonder why brain drain persists.
We designed the culture that rewards it.
Selfies from Silicon Valley, Silence at Home
It begins with a photograph.
An IIT topper stands smiling outside a Google office.
LinkedIn claps.
The parents cry tears of pride.
The nation loses, again.
For every talented Indian who makes it abroad, an opportunity quietly dies at home.
We’ve celebrated their individual glory while ignoring our collective grief.
We built the brain.
They built the valley.
This is not a personal complaint.
This is a civilizational failure.
And now, it’s time to talk about it—boldly, truthfully, and with numbers in hand.
Welcome to the dark economics of IIT brain drain.
Where the ROI isn’t in dollars. It’s in dignity.
A Country That Trains for Others
Let’s start with facts, not feelings.
India’s public investment in elite education is massive.
Between 2000–2025, we’ve spent over ₹3 lakh crore on IITs, NITs, IISERs, and similar institutions.
IIT Budget – Government Data
The 2024-25 Union Budget allocates ₹10,429 crore to all IITs combined ([Budget doc – GoI]).
Over the past 10–15 years, annual allocations have ranged between ₹6,000 to ₹11,000 crore.
Let’s estimate an average annual IIT budget of ₹8,500 crore from 2000–2025:
₹8,500 crore × 25 years = ₹2.125 lakh crore (IITs alone)
Add NITs, IISERs, IIITs, IIMs
NITs, IISERs, and IIITs together receive ~₹4,000–₹6,000 crore/year collectively.
Over 25 years, this adds another ₹1–1.25 lakh crore conservatively.
Category | Approximate Spend |
IITs (23) | ₹2.1 lakh crore |
NITs (31) | ₹0.75 lakh crore |
IISERs + IIITs + Others | ₹0.5–0.75 lakh crore |
Total (National Institutes) | ₹3.25–3.5 lakh crore |
That includes infrastructure, faculty salaries, research grants, hostels, food subsidies, and administrative costs.
Each IITian, by conservative estimate, receives a ₹25–50 lakh subsidy through their education.
What’s the actual cost of educating an IITian?
Based on RTI replies, CAG reports, IIT annual reports, and MoE data:
Average cost to educate 1 IIT B.Tech student over 4 years
₹50–70 lakh per student (all expenses included)
Cost Head | Estimate (4 yrs) |
Faculty salaries & pensions | ₹15–20 lakh |
Infrastructure & maintenance | ₹10–15 lakh |
Hostel, electricity, campus | ₹6–8 lakh |
Labs, library, admin, misc | ₹6–10 lakh |
Research funding support | ₹5–8 lakh |
Total | ₹45–60+ lakh |
So, the subsidy = Actual Cost – What Students Pay.
Yet over 30% of IITians leave India.
Among the top 100 rankers in JEE, the percentage going abroad is close to 60% (NBER studies).
And it’s not a new trend — this has been happening for decades.
The myth of remittance soothes the guilt.
Supporters argue that India receives $135 billion in remittances annually (World Bank 2023).
But these are not from IITians.
They’re from Gulf workers, nurses, drivers, and small business operators.
Remittances help families, not national innovation.
They’re emotional GDP, not structural capital.
Meanwhile, our research output and tech IP remain low.
While India ranks 3rd globally in the number of scientific publications, it ranks 40th+ in innovation output (Global Innovation Index 2023).
Most breakthrough patents filed by Indian-origin scientists? Filed abroad.
Their address changed. So did their allegiance.
Now compare this to China.
It not only funded elite education but offered direct incentives to retain or repatriate top talent.
Thousands of Chinese scientists who studied at MIT, Stanford, and Berkeley now lead labs in Beijing, not Boston.
India, instead, applauds the departure.
As if diaspora success equals national strength, no, it equals potential outsourced.
Before They Dream of Google, Teach Them to Love Bharat
The IIT brain drain doesn’t begin in college.
It begins in childhood.
Somewhere between 6th and 12th grade, a subtle message is embedded in the minds of millions: "India is not enough. Get out. Escape. Survive. Make it abroad."
This is not education. This is emotional exile.
We’ve replaced civilizational memory with colonial hangover.
Students learn more about World Wars than the Cholas, Chandragupta, or Chanakya.
They recite revolutions from Europe but know nothing of India’s scientific and spiritual contributions.
The net result?
A generation that's well-trained but unrooted.
Brilliant minds with no loyalty to the soil that raised them.
What India Must Do:
Nationalism must be taught — not enforced.
Not the blind version of flags and slogans, but the deep, factual version rooted in our civilizational truths, scientific achievements, and historical resilience.
Curriculum reforms must include:
History that goes beyond British narratives
Philosophy that teaches dharma, not just dates
Stories of Indian scientists, warriors, thinkers, saints
Contemporary case studies of Indians solving global problems from India
Values Education should:
Encourage seva (service) as a duty
Reward local problem-solving over imported prestige
Teach that building in Bharat is not a compromise — it’s a legacy
If we want engineers to stay, we must raise nation-builders, not just job-seekers.
That begins in classrooms, long before JEE rank or foreign placements.
What We Must Do Now — Not Later
If we accept this rot, we accept our decline.
Policy 1: Graduate Retention Bond
Every student funded by public institutions signs a 2–3 year national service bond. This could be research, teaching, innovation, or civil service. You can opt out — but pay the subsidy back, with interest.
Policy 2: National Talent Retention Fund
Just 5% of the MoE budget (~₹6,000 crore) can provide top-ups, grants, or start-up funds for top talent. Let private CSR funds match it. If we can build unicorns, we can build minds.
Policy 3: Strategic IP Mandates
Every research output from IITs/NITs must have first rights of commercialization in India. Encourage public–private partnerships, not overseas transfers.
Policy 4: Alumni Return & Rebuild Scheme
Offer fast-track research posts, sabbatical chairs, or special investment vehicles for Indian-origin innovators abroad. Bring them back — not just with slogans, but with structured opportunity.
Policy 5: Graduate Exit Report Mandate: Every premier institute must report graduate destinations (research, start-up, abroad, public sector).
Policy 6: Start-up + R&D Fellowship: for those working on indigenous tech with national application.
This Is Not Anti-Globalization.
It’s Pro-Self-Respect.
We are not saying IITians must never leave.
We’re saying: if you leave, you must acknowledge what you owe.
Not just to a campus.
But to a civilization that raised you.
We are not against working abroad.
We are against worshipping foreign success as superior.
Remittance is a good thing.
But retention is better.
Because a country doesn’t rise through wire transfers.
It rises when its best brains build its bridges, satellites, medicines, and dreams.
Will We Still Be a Country That Forgets Its Builders?
What will we tell the next child born in a village, dreaming of IIT?
That she will be funded by the taxes of a farmer…...only to be applauded when she posts a selfie from Facebook’s headquarters?
Or will we tell her: "You will study here. You will serve here. And your talent will lift not just you — but millions like you."
The time for vague pride is over.
The time for structural reform is now.
Because every brain we lose…...is one less heartbeat in India’s tomorrow.
We Cannot Build a Sovereign Nation on Borrowed Dreams
India stands at a civilizational inflection point.
We are not short of talent.
We are short of truth.
The truth that elite education funded by millions of taxpayers has become a conveyor belt, not for national transformation, but for global extraction.
The dream of IIT was not to mint passports; it was to mould patriots. And yet, somewhere between rank, placement, and prestige, we lost the plot.
This article is not anti-student.
It is a mirror held to a system that silently rewards exit and mocks service.
We need a new model, one that values contribution over compensation, and builds pathways where brilliance serves Bharat first.
The next 25 years must not be a repeat of the last.
It’s time to invert the pyramid: Let our top minds solve our deepest problems, and let the nation—not foreign recruiters—become the dream worth cracking.
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