India wants to become a global talent hub. What needs to change?

By Sebin JinnyFor Indian professionals abroad, the case for returning no longer rests on sentiment alone. As global companies build senior engineering, research and leadership roles in India, the argument for returning back has only strengthened.But professionals rarely make the decision on the role alone. For most families, the decision is shaped by compensation and how it compares with what they earn abroad, the tax implications of relocating, the choice of schools for their children, the career prospects of a spouse, and the everyday texture of life, from infrastructure and healthcare to commute and civic services. On several of these fronts, India’s offer has visibly improved.

On others, it is still being tested.India’s first global talent story was about Indian capability travelling to the world. The next chapter is about movement in both directions. Indian professionals are returning home, and organisations are bringing in international expertise where it helps them move from investment to execution faster. Making that two-way flow work depends on more than opportunity. It needs clear visa pathways, predictable tax treatment and policies that give people and employers confidence to move.

For much of India's modern economic journey, its talent narrative has been strikingly consistent: India develops exceptional people, and the world competes for them. Indian engineers, doctors, scientists, entrepreneurs and business leaders have built organisations and capabilities across global markets.That remains a source of enormous strength. But the conversation is evolving. Companies are not looking at India only as a market or a source of talent.

They are increasingly looking to build sophisticated operations here: advanced manufacturing, digital infrastructure, research, innovation and regional or global capability.This creates a sharper question for India: can we become as effective at attracting and deploying critical global expertise as we have been at developing and exporting talent?This is not a case for substituting India’s strong domestic workforce.

It is about bringing in specialist expertise where it helps projects get delivered sooner, passing on knowledge, and leaving local teams stronger than before. Skilled mobility is part of a country’s economic infrastructure. It is how eventually an investment turns into real output.

India's opportunity at a glance

Those numbers matter, but they do not tell the full story. Organisations investing in India rarely struggle with a lack of commitment to the market.

More often, the challenge is how quickly they can deploy the small number of specialists needed to operationalise that investment. Whether it is commissioning advanced equipment, transferring a production process, establishing a new function or training the first local team, the success of a project can sometimes hinge on just a handful of individuals.

That is why the talent question should not be framed as “Does India have talent?” Of course it does. The more commercially relevant question is: “Can an organisation place the precise expertise it needs in India, at the stage when that expertise creates the greatest value?”

From to

Returning professionals are just one part of a wider flow of talent.

Indians are coming back after years abroad. Members of the diaspora are sharing specialist knowledge from where they are. International experts are arriving for a defined period to build skills and pass them on. In June 2026, the Ministry of Home Affairs launched the e-OCI card, making it easier for people of Indian origin with foreign citizenship to stay connected to India.

That is a welcome step. The next one is to make it just as easy for them to contribute.

What is drawing people back

The pull is increasingly professional. India now hosts 2,117 global capability centres employing 2.36 million people, according to the Nasscom-Zinnov GCC Landscape 2026. These centres are doing more than support work. The Economic Survey 2024-25 expects global roles within them to grow from around 6,500 to more than 30,000 by 2030. That means senior roles once held at global headquarters will increasingly sit in India.Senior talent is beginning to respond. BCG’s 2026 research on global talent mobility places India among the top three destinations for STEM and AI talent, and notes that returning non-resident Indians are likely a large part of that.

The : getting factories up and running

Returning talent is one half of the picture. The other is expertise that arrives with investment. The proposed Electronic Production Investment Visa (e-B4) is designed to let specialists commission equipment, support production ramp-up and train local teams within clear compliance boundaries.

The focus is on enabling businesses to get operations up and running efficiently while ensuring that the knowledge and expertise brought in contribute to building local capabilities.

The lasting value lies in what remains behind: trained teams, stronger capabilities and more resilient operations.

Global campuses, closer to home

India’s effort to attract global capability is now visible in higher education too. The University Grants Commission’s 2023 regulations created a legal pathway for foreign universities to set up campuses in India.

So far, the UGC has issued 16 Letters of Intent to 15 institutions from Australia, Italy, the UK and the US, with campuses planned in cities including Bengaluru, Greater Noida, Gurugram, Mumbai and Chennai.This is not only an education story. A new campus needs faculty, researchers, academic leaders and specialist professionals who can design programmes, build institutional systems and connect Indian students with international research and teaching networks.A foreign university that opens a campus here is making a long-term commitment to India. For that commitment to pay off, its academics and institutional leaders need an immigration framework that is clear and predictable.

What will make India competitive

Getting outcomes right depends on getting the system right. India should not start by asking how many foreign professionals to admit. It should ask where internationally mobile expertise can create outsized value for its economy and workforce.Companies making investment decisions rarely look at immigration on its own. They ask whether capital, technology, leadership and specialist skills can arrive together and work together. Seen this way, skilled mobility is not an administrative afterthought. It is part of the infrastructure that turns investment intent into operating capability.

Predictability matters as much as speed. Businesses can plan around a process that takes time.

What they cannot plan around is uncertainty: unclear eligibility, inconsistent documentation requirements, or no way of knowing when a critical person can start.A competitive system is not a permissive one. Predictability gives organisations the confidence to plan, and compliance protects the integrity of the system. Visa policy alone will not decide the outcome. Sought-after professionals and their families weigh the whole proposition: career opportunity, immigration certainty, tax, family needs, quality of life, professional networks and continued access to global opportunities.For employers, this means global mobility cannot operate as a stand-alone transaction. It must connect immigration, tax, relocation, workforce planning and business strategy. For policymakers, it means that attracting talent is as much about the quality and coherence of the experience as it is about the formal availability of a visa.For returning professionals, three measures would make the most immediate difference.First, a single, authoritative guide to the residency, tax and foreign-exchange position of returnees.Second, simpler documentation and post-arrival processes, including banking and registrations, applied consistently across cities.Third, structured return programmes from employers that cover relocation, spousal career support and onboarding, treating the move as a household decision rather than just a job transfer.

What this means for the rest of us

Jobs and skills: Specialists who bring a new project to life also train its first local team. Local engineers, technicians and professionals pick up scarce skills that employers want. And when a project starts up faster, the hiring starts sooner too.Your child’s education: International education opportunities closer to home could give students access to global curricula and learning experiences without the expense of moving abroad.Coming home: The e-OCI card is meant to make it easier for Indian-origin professionals abroad, including relatives and friends, to return, invest or share their expertise.What we buy: Plants that reach production sooner mean more of the electronics and machines we use could be made closer to home.

The next chapter

If India combines the depth of its domestic workforce with returning Indian talent and carefully targeted international expertise, it can build more than a large talent pool.

It can build a genuinely global talent ecosystem, one in which mobility accelerates investment, transfers knowledge and strengthens long-term capability.

Capital can cross borders quickly and technology can be deployed globally. But people remain the catalyst that turns investment into productive capacity, transfers know-how and creates sustainable growth. As India competes for the industries and investments that will shape its next phase of development, attracting the right expertise at the right time will increasingly become a competitive advantage.India’s expanding diplomatic relationships and network of Free Trade Agreements create an opportunity to align trade, investment and talent mobility. India’s next competitiveness agenda should therefore recognise skilled mobility not merely as an immigration consideration, but as an economic capability in its own right.If this works, people will see it in three places: better jobs closer to home, more options for where their children study, and an easier path back for Indians living abroad.(The author is Partner at Vialto Partners. Views are personal.)