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US Deports Indian Illegal Immigrants in Handcuffs and Chains Aboard Military Aircraft
A US Air Force transport plane landed in India today with 104 illegal Indian immigrants in handcuffs and shackles, according to media reports. Speaking with reporters, a deportee said: “For 40 hours, we were handcuffed, our feet tied with chains and were not allowed to move an inch from our seats. After repeated requests, we were allowed to drag ourselves to the washroom. The crew would open the door of the lavatory and shove us in.”
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| Illegal Indian Immigrants Deported in Handcuffs and Chains. Source: News18 |
The inhumane treatment meted out to citizens of India, a US ally, has sparked a lot of anger against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government. The critics are citing the example of Colombia, a small South American nation, whose president protested similar treatment of its citizens by the Trump administration. Colombian President Gustavo Petro turned back the US military planes carrying deportees and then sent his own aircraft to transport them back home in Colombia.
Illegal immigration from India to the US has dramatically increased on Prime Minister Modi's watch. A Pew Research Center report said that as of 2022, India ranked third, after Mexico and El Salvador, on the list of countries with the largest number of undocumented immigrants — 725,000 — living in the U.S.
India has a serious unemployment problem, particularly for the young people entering the job market by the millions each year. This problem is concealed by headline economic growth figures highlighted by the Modi government. At the same time, India is losing its best and brightest in a massive brain drain.
"Leave India! It's High Time!!" screams out a recent Reddit post that has gone viral! The poster who claims to be an Indian entrepreneur warns of impending "terrible economic collapse" with a "massive depreciation of the Indian rupee".
The now-deleted post, written by a user named ‘u/anonymous_batm_an,’ urges high-earning professionals, especially innovators, to leave India for countries with better opportunities and governance, as reported by the Times of India. It recommends the UAE or Thailand as alternative destinations . The sentiments expressed in the post are already resonating with a large number of Indians. The non-resident Indians now constitute the world's largest overseas diaspora. Every year, 2.5 million Indians leave their country of birth, making India the nation with the highest annual number of emigrants in the world.
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| New Company Registrations in Dubai. Source: Khaleej Times |
Indian investors continued to top the list of new non-Emirati companies joining the Dubai Chamber of Commerce during the first nine months of 2024. A total of 12,142 new Indian companies joined the chamber during the period, data showed on Monday, according to the Khaleej Times. Pakistan ranked second on the list with 6,061 new companies joining between Q1-Q3 2024, while Egypt followed with 3,611 new companies registering as members of the chamber. The number of new Syrian companies joining the chamber during the first nine months of the year reached 2,062, placing the country fourth among the top nationalities of new member companies.
India is losing its best and brightest to the West, particularly to the United States, at an increasingly rapid pace. A 2023 study of the 1,000 top scorers in the 2010 entrance exams to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) — a network of prestigious institutions of higher learning based in 23 Indian cities — revealed the scale of the problem. Around 36% migrated abroad, and of the top 100 scorers, 62% left the country, according to a report in the science journal Nature. Nearly two-thirds of those leaving India are highly educated, having received academic or vocational training. This is the highest for any country, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
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| Example of The Great Indian Brain Drain. Source: Boston Political Review |
Brain drain is defined as the loss of precious human capital of a nation. It is a “consequence of an education system designed for ‘selecting’ the best and brightest in an economy that is still too controlled and cannot create opportunities for its best and brightest”, according to Indian economist Shruti Rajagopalan. High-profile examples of India's human capital loss include Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Sundar Pichai (Google), Shantanu Narayen (Adobe), Arvind Krishna (IBM) and Ajay Banga (World Bank).
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| Foreign-Born STEM Workers in America. Source: American Immigration Council |
Growing number of Indian students are going abroad for higher education each year and 90% of them never return home after completing their studies. In 2022, the number of Indian students leaving the country for higher education reached a six-year high of 770,000. And a 2021 report estimated that around two million Indian students would be studying abroad by 2024.
Many developing countries are experiencing brain drain. But India is losing its best brightest at a much faster rate than others. Some call it "The Great Indian Brain Drain". This is the reason why Indians in the United States are the best educated and the highest earning group. In a recently published book titled "The Other One Percent", authors Sanjoy Chakravorty, Devesh Kapur and Nirvikar Singh explain this phenomenon.
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Riaz Haq
Stanford-educated CEO slams 'unreliable’ Indian employees: ‘I might never go to India again’ | Trending - Hindustan Times
Entrepreneur Hari Raghavan criticized the work ethic of Indian employees after a recent visit, suggesting they require constant monitoring.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/trending/stanfordeducated-ceo-slams-...
Indian-American entrepreneur Hari Raghavan has spoken in defense of the much-derided AI startup Optifye, built to monitor factory workers, by saying that Indian employees are unreliable and need constant tracking.
Optifye.ai, co-founded by Indian-origin entrepreneurs Vivaan Baid and Kushal Mohta, uses computer vision technology to track workers on assembly lines and provide factory managers with productivity data. The startup came under fire after its product demo for Y Combinator went viral online for all the wrong reasons.
In the US, thousands of people slammed the AI startup, calling it a “dystopian” product to promote sweatshop slavery. But one Indian-American CEO begs to differ.
Hari Raghavan slams Indian employees
Hari Raghavan, co-founder and CEO of Autograph and a Stanford alumnus, took to the social media platform X to slam the work ethic of Indian employees, implying that they are lazy, don’t like to work, and need constant monitoring.
Raghavan said that the startup might appear tone-deaf to Americans, but is a much-needed product in India where workers often cut corners, take leaves, lag behind on their work, and generally do not work the way Americans do.
“I grew up in India and I don't think y'all understand how unreliable the work ethic of the average Indian employee is,” the Indian-American CEO wrote. “I don't think it's an accident that the company has a bunch of Indian founders and my guess is that they're targeting the manufacturing base in India. I think their biggest mistake was not realizing that it would be seen as tone deaf when marketed to a US audience on X or LinkedIn.”
10 times less efficient
Raghavan said that the lax work ethic of Indian employees is apparent in both physical labour and knowledge work.
Speaking from his own experience, he said that the same exact work that Boston Consulting Group did in three days would take two months if done at BNP Paribas Chennai.
Referring once again to the Optifye product demo that caused a furor in the United States, Raghavan said: “If you show that video to literally anyone, in almost any walk of life in India, they will nod furiously and say ‘yes this is what we need.’”
“If you are managing a group of workers in India, you have to breathe down every single person's neck every 10 minutes... and then, if you're lucky, they will get about half as much done as an average US worker,” he opined.
The Indian-origin CEO said that on average, an Indian worker is 10 times less efficient than an American worker.
The entrepreneur continued his rant saying he visited India a few weeks ago and is still fuming from the “million small unprofessional and incompetent interactions” he had there.
He went so far as to say he may never visit India again.
“I just got back from India a couple weeks ago, and I'm still frustrated remembering the million small unprofessional and incompetent interactions that define the daily experience. I might never go to India again because I can't deal with it,” the CEO, who holds a master’s degree in management science and engineering from Stanford University.
Feb 28
Riaz Haq
Two children from India are missing as a boat with illegal immigrants capsized off the coast of San Diego, California, killing three people. The parents of the children had a miraculous escape, and are receiving treatment in hospital.
https://www.indiatoday.in/amp/world/us-news/story/us-california-san...
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https://indiawest.com/search-called-off-in-san-diego-boat-tragedy-2...
SAN DIEGO, CA The search for seven missing individuals—including two Indian children—has been officially called off after a tragic boating accident off Torrey Pines State Beach near San Diego.
The U.S. Coast Guard announced the suspension of search efforts on May 6, citing the passage of time, survival likelihood in rough ocean conditions, and exhausted resources as key factors in the decision.
The overturned vessel, a 12-foot panga-style boat, capsized early on May 5 amid hazardous surf. Among those involved is an Indian family: both parents survived and are currently being treated at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, while their children remain missing.
The Consulate General of India in San Francisco has confirmed the family’s nationality and is in contact with local authorities to gather more information.
Authorities believe the boat was carrying 16 people when it capsized. Three were found dead at the scene, four were hospitalized, and two were taken into custody. The seven who remain missing include two children, presumed to be part of the Indian family.
Although the identities of those on board have not been released, investigators suspect the vessel may have been part of an illegal border crossing. Panga boats are often used for such unauthorized maritime travel along the California coast. The presence of 17 life jackets recovered at the scene has added to the uncertainty surrounding the total number of passengers involved.
The Indian consulate has expressed concern and is offering support to the affected family.
May 6
Riaz Haq
Why Indians are ‘abandoning’ their children at US borders - Times of India
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-plus/international/why-indi...
They are to be found at the US border with Mexico or Canada. Mostly between 12 and 17 years old, but sometimes even as young as six. Left alone, afraid, in unfamiliar surroundings, carrying nothing but a chit of paper, on which is scribbled names and contact details of their parents.
In a disturbing trend visible over the past few years, Indian children are increasingly being found all by themselves at the US borders, trying to enter the country sans documents or the company of guardians.
May 6