Rajat Khare Believes India Can Lead The World's AI Revolution By Stopping Brain Drain

The Indian AI Moment: The Global Perspective

Unprecedented technologies are now sweeping the

world. AI, the new-fangled industrial engine, is shaping industries, economies, and even global hierarchies. India finds itself at a momentous crossroad during this change. Running one of the biggest lunettes of engineers, data scientists, and tech graduates in the world, the country has thus become a potential power in the development of AI.

But there's a perennial threat to the blossoming of this very potential — this has always been the talent escape. 

According to several world surveys, over 15% of AI researchers worldwide hail from India, but they largely remain in labs, startups, and corporations out of India.

An investor and founder of Boundary Holding, which is based in Luxembourg and is known for investing in deep-tech and AI-backed ventures, Rajat Khare rightly sums it by saying, "India's abundance of tech talent is undeniable; the challenge is ensuring this abundance serves India's own technological progress."

Understanding the Brain Drain Phenomenon
Every year thousands of India's finest engineers and scientists move abroad for research opportunities, better pay, and international exposure. While much good is achieved abroad, long-term deficits are created in the R&D ecosystem in India because of their absence on the domestic innovation front.

The causes are well documented:

Lower public funding for AI research vis-à-vis worldwide competition.
Less alignment between academia and industry.
Lower salaries and promotion incentives for researchers.
Lack of mentorship and infrastructure programs for deep-tech innovations.

This will make it very hard for India to keep its best minds at a time when they are most needed to power AI opportunities in India.

The Vision of Rajat Khare: Reverse the Trend, Retain the Talent
For as long as he can remember, Rajat Khare has worked on building India’s own deep-tech ecosystem through local innovation and venture support. Through Boundary Holding, Khare invests in emergent technologies such as AI, computer vision, and MedTech to show that providing support to nascent companies is the way toward independent technology on a sustainable basis.

“India’s talent pool is one of its most valuable national assets,” says Khare. “But if we don’t create an environment that rewards innovation, more and more of this talent will continue to move abroad. The time to act is now.”

According to Khare, this is how the solution ought to be implemented:

Strengthen the academia-industry interface.
Increase funding for AI research and innovation.
Build an economic ecosystem in which it is as rewarding to stay as it is to move. 

India’s Growing AI Infrastructure
With respect to the development of a homegrown large language model capable of processing human language into human-like text in multiple languages in India, India’s AI journey is perhaps entering yet another chapter.

A backing of over 18,600 GPUs has given India the computational platform to take on AI giants such as OpenAI and Google DeepMind. What distinguishes India is that it focuses on multilingual intelligence. With 22 official languages and hundreds of dialects, an indigenous AI model trained on India's linguistic diversity could unlock new markets altogether — from rural education to the delivery of healthcare.

This push for multilingual AI is not only a technical revolution; it goes towards cultural preservation-yet-another area global models have yet to capture, being mostly English-centric.

Bridging the Gap Between Academia and Industry
While Indian universities give millions of world-class students, only a tiny minority advances into studies and research in AI domestically. To close this gap, some have suggested, including Rajat Khare:

Offer AI research fellowships, and PhD sponsorship programs.
Set up centers of excellence in AI in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities under government and private partnership.
Encourage public-private collaboration to stimulate commercialization of deep technology.
Provide tax incentives and grants for startups that are focusing on AI applications of indigenous interest.

Khare says collaboration is most important: "If we align education and research under a common national AI vision, India can set global benchmarks."

Building An Ecosystem That Rewards Innovation
The end goal is not to just see talent go but rather attract talent to stay in India. Several policy directions can help:

Competitive pay for AI researchers and data scientists.
AI innovation centers with linkages to global universities and Indian startups.
Return incentives for Indian-origin scientists abroad to work remotely or relocate.
Deep-tech venture funding aimed at curing India-centric problems — smart agriculture to urban planning.

Rajat Khare’s Boundary Holding has indeed shown that investing early in AI and deep-tech startups creates both economic and social returns. His philosophy of early-stage investment is one that mixes business foresight with technological intent — a model India can apply at the national level.

A Multilingual Advantage: India's AI Differentiator
While Western AI models are built for uniform, predominantly English, markets, India offers a one-of-a-kind testing ground for inclusive AI through its linguistic and cultural diversity.

A really Indian AI would:

Understand languages and local dialects.
Communicate cultural nuances.
Promote government policies such as Digital India and BharatNet with improved citizen accessibility.
Empower small businesses and rural communities through language-based solutions.

The ability to integrate cultural intelligence within AI systems may serve as India's differentiating edge in the world AI economy.

Global Collaboration Without Talent Exodus
Instead of going into isolation, India might try to achieve a "distributed innovation model" where Indian-origin experts abroad actually work on AI projects back at home.

By forging global partnerships and asking international researchers to co-develop solutions, India shall benefit with global exposure too while retaining control of IP.

Khare finally suggests that India should tap into its diaspora network-a strong bridge between local innovation and global opportunity.

The Economic Imperative
Since the Indian economic scenario is set to cross $10 trillion barrier in coming years, and with automation, predictive analytics, and AI systems creation remaining an item of demand there, the domestic economy has thus been asked to undergo a real transformation through innovation-based startups with homegrown AI talent onto strategic deep-tech infrastructure investments.

"AI will define how economies grow in the next decade," Rajat Khare ends. "If India retains its best thinkers, it will not just participate in the AI revolution but lead it."

Conclusion: Brain Drain into Brain Gain
There was a time when the story of brain drain was accepted as an inevitable phenomenon-the natural fallout of globalization. Today, though, it has emerged as a policy and ecosystem challenge that India can and must address.

By pouring funds into education and research, India could actually turn brain drain into its very own brain gain revolution, creating self-sustained growth for AI, and beyond. 

India won't just have a technological revolution in AI; it will be human-initiated.

And that talent retention may well become India's greatest innovation, just as Rajat Khare foresees.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q1. What has brain drain got to do with Indian AI growth?

 Brain drain refers to the migration of highly skilled professionals abroad. For India, it means losing top AI researchers and engineers who speed up domestic innovation and technological independence.

Q2. How is India set for the competition in global AI development?

 India is building its own language model (LLM), making large investments in GPU infrastructure, and setting up multilingual AI towards serving linguistic communities.

Q3. What part does multilingual AI play in India's strategy?

 Multilingual AI would allow India to develop technology that acknowledges local languages and cultures — therefore, rendering digital access more democratic and more impactful.