Why India’s Economic Growth Isn’t Retaining Student Talent, ETEducation
By Priyasha Datt & Dr Keshab Nandy
India today ranks among the fastest growing major economies in the world. Newspapers routinely carry headlines celebrating record growth, rising infrastructure spending, and global recognition. Yet behind these impressive numbers lies a quieter reality visible in homes, classrooms, and college corridors across the country. A large number of Indian students continue to look outward for education and work, even when immigration rules abroad grow tighter. The choice is rarely emotional. It is shaped by everyday experience.
This contradiction raises an important question why does rapid economic growth fail to convince young Indians to build their futures at home?
For most students, growth figures feel distant. What matters more is the quality of education they receive and the confidence that their effort will lead to stable work. While India has outstanding institutions such as the IITs and IIMs, these remain exceptions in a system where many universities struggle with outdated syllabi, limited exposure to industry, and weak research culture. Students often complete degrees without feeling ready for professional life. As a result, foreign education and work experience are seen not as luxury choices but as necessary steps toward credibility and growth.
One of the strongest attractions of studying abroad is the assurance of structured work experience after graduation. In the United States and several European countries, students are offered clear post study work pathways that allow them to spend at least one year in industry. This period helps young graduates translate classroom learning into real skills, earn with dignity, and understand professional systems. In India, students often step out of university into uncertainty, relying on informal internships, personal networks, or long periods of job searching. The absence of a guaranteed transition from education to employment creates anxiety at the very start of adult life.
This gap can be addressed through purposeful collaboration between Indian universities and industry, supported by government policy. Every accredited university should be linked with domestic industries to ensure a minimum one year paid apprenticeship, traineeship, or job placement for graduating students. Such a framework would give students breathing space to learn, earn, and grow within India itself. Industries, in turn, would gain access to trained and motivated young professionals, while universities would be compelled to design courses that reflect real workplace needs.
Beyond jobs, young people also absorb lessons from the systems around them. They watch their parents struggle with systemic apathy, slow courts, confusing regulations, and institutions that often appear unresponsive. These experiences including having to expect clean air or water as luxury quietly shape their thinking. When effort does not reliably lead to outcomes, ambition looks elsewhere. In contrast, foreign systems promise predictability, clearer rules, and professional respect. These qualities offer reassurance at a stage of life when certainty matters deeply. If India wants its growth story to retain its own students, it must speak to these lived realities. Economic expansion must be matched with institutional trust, meaningful opportunities and clear pathways from education to work. A nationally supported post study work framework grounded in industry and academia cooperation would signal that India values its young talent not only in numbers, but in practice. Until growth is felt in everyday opportunities and better quality of life, many students will continue to seek their futures beyond the country’s borders.
Datt is a student & Nandy, a Professor are from NMIMS Law School, Navi Mumbai.
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETEDUCATION does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETEDUCATION will not be responsible for any damage caused to any person or organisation directly or indirectly.
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