I spent my youth in India before moving here to the United States for college. One of the most critical benefits of this dual experience has been engaging with diverse groups of people on both sides of the world and understanding how they think. Armed with this unique perspective, I come to you with a warning: Be wary of the young people in India. They can disrupt your future.
The case for being wary of India has strong merits; India, the world’s largest democracy, is also home to the world’s second-largest English-speaking population. As the world has globalized, so has India’s presence and prominence. For instance, the highest-earning demographic group in the tri-state area, where you live, is Indians. These were the people who came to North America and flourished in the vast pool of opportunities. Imagine what will happen (to you) if the land of India becomes that pool of opportunities. Her youths are highly ambitious, global citizens with sharp quantitative skills – engineering is the nation’s third language after Hindi and English – who can truly compete with American brainpower. Are young Americans prepared to face the tropical Indian storm heading their way? I don’t think so.
At the outset, the best American students – argumentative, risk-taking, driven, broad-minded, with global viewpoints and diverse networks – outsmart their counterparts in India by leagues. But these ultra-smart people comprise a very small percentage of the entire American youth. To make things worse, the opposite holds true for the average: Larger groups of average young Indians – hard-working, motivated, less party-focused, etc. – outcompete their average American counterparts on most fronts required in today’s predominantly IT-based job market. And they don’t charge as much either – $6,000 per annum for an engineering graduate is considered a decent salary. India’s competitive advantage is therefore young people producing work at par at much lower costs. Are Americans ready to work harder for less money?
Yet India’s biggest shortfall – and reason for reprieve in America – is that young Indians have an extremely low satisfaction threshold. The journey from no wealth to some wealth is seen as the benchmark for success. And while that’s justified at the micro level, it does not serve India’s macro aspirations well enough. That kind of midway complacency disables Indians’ potential to leverage on their otherwise sharp killer instincts. Unimaginative conventionalism is all it takes to reach somewhere, and people are happy with that as of now.
In fact, a friend of mine from one of India’s most prestigious engineering colleges, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, who is studying at Johns Hopkins University for a semester, told me fewer than 15 students applied for a subsidized study abroad program to the United States – out of a class of 3,000 of India’s brightest minds. Clearly, learning and taking risks is not on any Indian agenda, at least for the time being.
But once it is, be watchful. Now that young Indians are beginning to reach somewhere, the ambition of their future goals will only increase.
It is only a matter of time before they will begin to rise above conventions and embrace learning and risk-taking opportunities in the process – I experienced that firsthand this winter on a train journey with 400 of India’s brightest young entrepreneurs. The innovative spirit is already beginning to percolate, and it soon will flood through the minds of a significant proportion of the general young populace. When that happens, the unprepared, partying American youth will be hit hard.
Anand Gupta is a sophomore economics major. He can be reached at anandgupta92@gmail.com.
