Modi’s latest brain regain scheme arrives at an auspicious moment

Of all Indian prime ministers, Narendra Modi has perhaps done more to establish a closer connect with the Indian diaspora.

Soon after first coming to power in 2014, he emphatically noted that India’s brain drain can be understood instead as “brain deposit”, which has the potential to be used at a later date for the country’s benefit. He made similar pronouncements over the years regarding brain gain or reverse brain drain.

Meanwhile, his government launched several schemes in its early years to engage and benefit from the Indian diaspora. These included 2015’s Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN), aimed at encouraging Indians abroad to engage with India’s own higher education institutes, and the Visiting Advanced Joint Research programme (VAJRA), launched in 2017, to bring overseas faculty to India for between one and three months a year. The 2017 Institutions of Eminence (IoE) excellence initiative also encouraged the selected universities to hire a “good proportion of foreign or foreign qualified faculty”.

These initiatives at brain gain have not been very successful. A report released by the government’s thinktank NITI Aayog last December noted the “limited flexibility” and “procedural bottlenecks” that constrained their success, while the IoE programme is now apparently moribund. But Modi’s latest attempt to leverage India’s academic diaspora has a good chance to make a more significant impact.

On 1 June, applications opened for the new Prime Minister Research Chair (PMRC) Scheme, a flagship national initiative to attract at least 120 Indian-origin researchers, scientists, technologists and professionals over the next five years from globally reputed institutions (including industries) to premier public universities in India.

The scheme is offering opportunities under the categories of young research fellows, senior research fellows and research chairs and carries fellowships, research grants, access to laboratories and research infrastructure for the successful candidates – who must work in one of several thematic areas of “national priority”, such as atomic energy, space and defence, advanced computing and semiconductors.

The eligible public institutions that can host the fellows are limited to the top 100 universities or engineering institutions or top 50 research institutions in the government’s national university rankings. Private universities are excluded.

The NITI Aayog report noted that for every foreign student studying in India, about 25 Indians go abroad. Perhaps more worrisome than the total number of Indian students heading abroad is the fact that the number of those heading for PhDs to Global North countries has also increased. Upon completion of the PhD, the normal pattern for students has been to take up jobs in academia in the Global North or in other prosperous countries rather than return to work at Indian universities. Those who return often struggle to secure a position at a good university.

Taking note of China’s Thousand Talents Programme (TTP) and South Korea’s Brain Return 500 Project, both of which successfully attracted significant numbers of skilled researchers and professionals back to their home countries, the report recommended launching fellowships aimed at attracting and retaining top researchers, faculty and professionals, especially from the Indian diaspora. And that is just what the PMRC Scheme 2026 is supposed to do, creating streamlined opportunities for Global North-based Indian-origin academics, including those early in their career, to return home.

There is no doubt that the scheme faces challenges. India’s public universities, especially outside the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) system, can often be difficult places to work at in terms of their bureaucracy, infrastructure, research culture and outmoded ways of functioning. It also appears that the salaries, research grants and other benefits offered by the programme are not attractive in comparison with what China or South Korea offered for their diaspora.

But it is also clear that the PMRC Scheme comes at an auspicious moment. Global North countries no longer afford the same opportunities for Indian academics as they did in the past. Many countries have tightened immigration rules and since Donald Trump became president of the US, there are reports that many Indians are considering returning to India. The Economist noted recently that “Indian academics who are just completing their doctorates in America are becoming more open to moving home.”

On the Indian side, new pull factors have emerged that could also help to reverse the brain drain. There has been a significant growth in the numbers of good private universities. Branch campuses of British and Australian universities are being set up. And it is believed that there are new and growing opportunities for Indian academics.

Modi has led by example. Of the 15 members of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), seven have PhDs from Western universities. But if he succeeds in attracting a significant number of high-quality Indian academics home, perhaps one day there will be no strong reason for academically ambitious Indians to leave in the first place.

Pushkar is director of the International Centre Goa.