One Nation, No Return, Brain Drain:

India’s Citizenship Exodus and the High Price of Denying Dual Citizenship and Research Funding 

Dr. Chandrashekhar M Biradar | 24 July, 2025

The Alarming Trend: Over 2 Lakh Indians Renounced Citizenship in 2024

In 2024 alone, 2,06,378 Indians gave up their Indian citizenship — a staggering figure revealed in the Rajya Sabha by the Minister of State for External Affairs, Kirti Vardhan Singh. This follows a continuing trend:

• 2024: 2,06,378
• 2023: 2,16,219
• 2022: 2,25,620
• 2021: 1,63,370

In the past decade, nearly 2 million Indians have renounced their citizenship — not out of disloyalty, but out of legal compulsion when they adopted the nationality of another country for education, career, or personal security.

A Global Citizenry India No Longer Owns

Most of these individuals became citizens of nations like the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, Germany, and France, ˝countries that allow and even encourage dual citizenship. But India is one of the only major countries in the world that does not allow its citizens to hold dual nationality. If an Indian becomes a citizen of another country, they must surrender their Indian passport. The result? A legal severance of their connection to Bharat. 

Surrender and Renunciation of Indian Citizenship applies only to applicants of Indian Origin. Under The Indian Citizenship Act, 1955, Persons of Indian Origin is not allowed DUAL Citizenship. If a person has ever held an Indian Passport and has obtained the Passport of another country, they will be required to surrender their Indian Passport immediately after gaining another Country’s nationality.

“We proudly call the world Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, World is One Family, yet refuse to allow our citizens to legally remain part of that global family. We praise Nobel Prize winners, tech CEOs, inventors, and researchers of Indian origin as ‘Indian successes’ — but they are no longer Indian citizens. India celebrates them, but does not recognize them.”

The Great Indian Brain Drain -A Crisis of Policy

And it’s not just numbers. Most of the Indians who gave up their citizenship are millionaires, inventors, entrepreneurs, doctors, engineers, researchers, and high-performing professionals. These are people who worked hard, paid taxes, created technologies, generated jobs, and contributed meaningfully to India and the world.

Just imagine the collective loss:

• Patents not filed in India
• Startups registered abroad
• Research papers published from foreign institutions
• Awards, honours, and breakthroughs attributed to other nations
• Revenue, innovation, and recognition — permanently lost

India isn’t just losing its citizens, it’s losing a generation of global influence, enterprise, and talent.

 China vs India: Two Paths, One Question

While India enforces a no-return policy on citizenship, China launched the ‘10,000 Talent Return Program’. Through it, Chinese nationals abroad were invited and incentivized to return, offering them better or equivalent opportunities to serve their homeland.

China recognized the brain drain early and turned it into brain circulation, empowering returning citizens to lead in science, defence, education, and tech.

Today, China leads India in:

• Number of patents filed annually
• Nobel recognitions and international awards
• Scientific publications
• GDP and global trade leverage
• And its strategic influence over AI, semiconductors, and green tech

A Personal Reflection

I had the privilege of living and working in the United States for nearly a decade, holding a U.S. Green Card and having the option to acquire American citizenship. But I made a conscious and heartfelt decision not to give up my Indian citizenship. I surrendered my Green Card and chose to return to India—to serve the land that shaped me, and to contribute to its journey toward global leadership.

However, not everyone is in a position to make that choice—especially the younger generation of talented professionals, researchers, and entrepreneurs. They are often forced to weigh their deep-rooted loyalty against the practical need for world-class opportunities, institutional recognition, and professional dignity. The reality is stark: if India cannot offer them the best scientific, academic, and career platforms, they will not return—and many will not stay.

This leads to a tragic and persistent outcome: we lose our brightest minds, our most hardworking and visionary citizens, not due to lack of patriotism, but because of outdated policies that no longer reflect the aspirations of a globally connected Bharat. We cannot afford to let rigid laws from the 1950s define the future of 2047.

Dual Citizenship, Innovation & Diaspora Policy

The comparison highlights that the United States treats its diaspora as a strategic national asset, providing legal continuity through dual citizenship, full rights, and structured reintegration programs that enable overseas Americans to contribute both at home and globally. In contrast, India, despite its deep emotional and cultural ties to its global diaspora—lacks the legal frameworks and modern policy mechanisms necessary to fully leverage their potential. The absence of dual citizenship in India effectively severs millions of capable, loyal, and globally positioned Indians from participating in the nation’s development, innovation ecosystem, and strategic interests at a time when their contributions could elevate Bharat’s global standing.

Comparison between India and United States of America 

Feature	🇮🇳 India	🇺🇸 United States
Dual Citizenship	Not Allowed	Allowed
OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) Equivalent	Limited rights (no voting, jobs, political office, land ownership)	Full rights retained for dual citizens
Legal Impact of Acquiring Foreign Citizenship	Indian citizenship must be surrendered	Retains U.S. citizenship; native citizenship can be retained
Diaspora Size	~32 million overseas Indians globally	~9 million overseas Americans globally
Brain Drain Policy	No formal program to bring back talent	Multiple return fellowships, open work permits, and integration schemes
Diaspora Talent Return Program	None	Yes (e.g., “American Science Reconnect”, Fulbright programs)
Top Leadership from Diaspora	Celebrated informally (e.g., CEOs of Google, Microsoft) but not citizens	Legally full citizens, eligible for highest offices, including President
Number of Patents per Year	~85,000 (2023, incl. foreign assignees)	~350,000+ (US-origin applicants dominate global innovation)
Nobel Laureates (Total)	13 India-linked (8 India-born), lowest per capita!	400+ of U.S.A. citizens, highest in the world!
GDP (2024 est.)	~$3.9 trillion	~$28 trillion
Ease of Returning to Citizenship	Extremely limited, discretionary	Simple, rights-based process
Visa and Residency for Former Citizens	OCI (lifelong visa but limited rights)	Full residency or expedited Green Card re-entry
Academic Brain Gain Programs	None formalized nationally	Yes (e.g., returning faculty pathways, NSF reintegration)
Diaspora Voting Rights	Not allowed	Yes (U.S. citizens abroad vote by mail)
Talent Re-engagement Strategy	Largely symbolic or limited to cultural ties	Strategic, backed by law, funding, and integration programs

Invest in Fundamental Science to Prevent Brain Drain

One of the most urgent challenges facing India’s knowledge economy is the lack of sustained investment in basic and fundamental research infrastructure, which remains a critical driver for innovation, deep technology, and national competitiveness. While India is rich in human talent, hardworking youth and bestowed with ancient scientific wisdom, it continues to face a shortfall in research funding and high-quality institutional opportunities, infrastructure, especially for young, talented minds in science and technology.

Every year, India sees thousands of top graduates and best brains in science, physics, mathematics, biology, AI, and engineering move abroad, not for better salaries alone, but for access to world-class laboratories, research ecosystems, mentorship, and freedom to pursue curiosity-driven inquiry, like I left India in 2000s to seek best opportunities and ecosystem to peruse my dream. But one think was very clear in my mind that I will return to India one day, that opportunity come in 2022 while many even better opportunities awaiting elsewhere. 

In contrast, countries like the USA, Germany, Denmark, China, Israel, etc invest substantially in basic science as a strategic foundation for national innovation. China’s focus on research universities and return-talent programs has made it a global leader in deep tech patents, quantum computing, semiconductors, and space science.

To truly become Atmanirbhar and globally competitive, India must elevate fundamental science to a national mission, with:

• A 5x increase in public funding for basic and interdisciplinary research
• Creation of young investigator grants and return fellowships and very attractive talent return program for overseas Indian scientists and innovators. 
• Establishment of research clusters in Tier-II and rural universities to promote distributed innovation
• Integration of Indian knowledge systems (IKS) with frontier science for globally distinctive breakthroughs.
• India bestowed with all the needed inherent talent to develop most cost effective, low emission, and sustainable production systems in all sectors with appropriate enabling environment to lead the global green growth with local actions.  

Without this foundational commitment, even the best diaspora re-engagement policies may fall short, as talent follows purpose, infrastructure, and intellectual freedom.

What Needs to Change?

India’s Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) scheme has been a positive step in acknowledging the emotional and cultural ties of our global diaspora. However, it remains an incomplete bridge, granting visa-free travel and residency but denying political rights, public sector opportunities, voting power, and full civic inclusion.

If India truly aspires to become a Vishwa Guru, a guiding force in the 21st century grounded in both Sanatan values and technological progress, it must boldly reimagine its citizenship framework to reflect the realities of global mobility, diaspora engagement, and knowledge-based economies.

Policy Recommendations for a Future-Ready Bharat

1. Recognize Dual Citizenship for Global Indians
   Amend the Indian Citizenship Act to allow dual citizenship for qualified emigrants, investors, professionals, and scientists, particularly those in countries with reciprocal arrangements and strategic alignment.
2. Launch a ‘Global Indian Talent Return Mission’
   Create a flagship program to attract and reintegrate high-achieving Indian-origin individuals through prestigious return fellowships, incentives, academic and startup fast-tracks, and dignified institutional roles.
3. Reform Nationality Laws for the 21st Century
   Replace the binary legal framework with one that honours transnational identity, contribution, and intent, recognizing that loyalty today is demonstrated through service—not just paperwork.
4. Enable Re-Acquisition of Indian Citizenship
   Introduce a clear, time-bound, and inclusive pathway for those who once renounced Indian citizenship but now wish to return and contribute to national development.
5. Reframe the Diaspora as Permanent Partners
   Stop viewing overseas Indians as “former citizens” and instead institutionalize them as lifelong ambassadors, co-creators, and policy stakeholders in India’s economic, scientific, and cultural progress.

The World is Moving Forward, Will India?

The decision of over 2 lakh Indians to renounce their citizenship in a single year is more than a bureaucratic statistic. It is a signal, a mirror held up to our outdated policies on identity, talent, and global integration.

While most advanced nations have embraced dual nationality as a tool of soft power and strategic advantage, India continues to enforce a binary model, pushing out its best minds and making return a legal impossibility.

If Bharat is to truly realize its ancient ethos of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam and its modern ambition of becoming a Viksit Rashtra by 2047, we must urgently rethink what it means to be Indian, Bharatiya, not just by birth, but by choice, contribution, and conviction.

The time for this transformation is now!