Why chase fading dreams abroad when the future's brightest opportunities shine in the East?

People scoff at our STEM numbers, but they're missing the real story. In 2021, Indian startups raised $42 billion in funding - that's triple the previous year. We've got 100+ unicorns now, up from just 11 in 2015. My cousin built an AI tool for detecting crop diseases in his final year project. It's now used by 50,000 farmers across 3 states. My dad's colleague's son, 19 years old, just sold his fintech app to a major fintech. These STEM grads aren't just joining big tech - they're solving real problems. In 2021, an Indian team built a low-cost ventilator during COVID when imports were choked. It's not all rosy, sure. We've got massive challenges. But for the first time, I'm seeing young people excited to build solutions here, not just dream of a job abroad.

That shift in mindset – that's the real data point to watch. Fuck these charts.

All these numbers and we're still churning out IT coolies for the West. Yeah, we've got brains, but where's the guts? Our 'innovators' are too busy making another food delivery app or copycat startup. Meanwhile, the real problems - our crops, our air, our streets - are screaming for solutions. But nah, let's all pretend we're the next big thing while our best minds are fixing bugs for Facebook. Wake up, we're not the future of tech, we're just its cheap labor force. Wanna impress me? Show me inventions that actually help our people, not just inflate some startup's valuation.

India is high on statistics and low on quality of life and infrastructure. For e.g, of what use is a great GDP growth rate when the average person cannot depend on public healthcare or walk on clean pavements?

Unicorns my ass barely profitable. 0 innovative heck the country doesn't even spend on R&D. Quality >> Qantity.

And CHINA>>>>>>India

As I have grown older and (maybe) a little wiser. I realise that these rosy macro numbers matter little when it comes to your personal quality of life and future.

Why would rational people take a loan on their life's assets for a remote chance in a foreign land? Simple, because they think it's worth the risk since the rewards here are so abysmal.

Take your chart, out of the millions of graduates we have the highest percentage with the least employable skills. Those who are good and graduate from IITs leave for the west. Leave this, all this VC money and FDI have benefited very few and those few (around a lakh or so according to official stats) are the ones brave enough to file an ITR with more than 1 Cr. income.

Aside from this we as a country have completely forsaken two key areas for quick service cash. One being manufacturing and the other being research. Manufacturing deserves its own post but India just sucks at quality research. I'm friends with some of the best and brightest botany researchers in India who have tried for a decade to secure funding and livelihood by venturing into remote forests for their research only to give up and go to the EU simply because they have a future there.

I don't mean to downplay your post but please take a look outside and think from the perspective of ones leaving. I've been promised better roads, sanitation, and education for the last ten years of my working life and I'm tired of waiting.

Lastly, our current state and future is a reflection of our leaders. I'll get downvoted to oblivion for this but our leaders are simply not Empire builders, they are term to term politicians.