As per Henley Private Wealth Migration Report 2024, 4,300 millionaires will leave India by the end of 2025, indicating nominal slow down. In 2024, 5,100 Indians moved their houses from India opting to work in Dubai, London, Europe, USA, Singapore and others. This year, though there is a ‘wee bit ‘slowdown of high networth individuals’ (HNIs) migration, what comes out loud and clear from the report is that for these HNIs, India is no longer where their heart is. They think that greater opportunity, freedom and stability lie elsewhere. The HNIs have chosen Singapore, Middle East, Dubai, London, Europe and America and other countries as their destination of work, leisure and stay. The worrisome part is, there is now an increasing trend to renounce Indian citizenship as well. As of 2023, over 216,000 Indians holding Indian passports have already surrendered their citizenship. Sanjaya Baru, ex-Media Advisor to Dr Manmohan Singh, in his latest book “Secession Of The Successful” explores why India as a country increasingly becoming nationalist but the elite and successful are quite happy to migrate to other countries, a trend which is now increasing. He says Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) have become Non-Returning Indians. According to him, individuals are leaving India because India has not created an environment to retain the talent. The dichotomy is India’s HNIs chant “Bharat Mata ki Jai” while opting to live and work overseas but not returning to India for good. The challenge for any government is to improve the civic and urban life facilities making it worthwhile for people to come back. (By Sangram Mohanty, www.shortpost.in)
