Indian-Americans Win Big At Modi-Trump Bromance In Houston
The Indian-American diaspora and its economic, intellectual, and electoral firepower was clearly the biggest winner in Houston.
So, who emerged the biggest winner from the Howdy Modi-Trump spectacle at Houston? For diehard bhakts (devotees), Modi catapulted to the political stratosphere by yanking POTUS to a private rally. For Trump’s fanatical Republican followers, he “gotcha” the elusive Indian-American votes, socking it to the Democrats.
Nearly four million strong, Indian-Americans comprise the second biggest sub-group of Asian immigrants, after Chinese. They are an indelible fixture of the U.S. economy.
Their contributions are especially key to preserving America’s technological edge.
Though Indians comprise 6 percent of Silicon Valley’s workforce, they have founded nearly 15 percent of its startups.
Several of America’s biggest tech companies are headed by Indian-Americans, including Satya Nadella at Microsoft, Sundar Pichai of Google, and Adobe’s Shantanu Narayen. And Indian-Americans have helped build a fruitful link between Silicon Valley and Bangalore, with companies sharing research, technological developments, personnel, and capital. Several prominent U.S. tech companies—including Microsoft, Google, and Adobe—house their biggest development centers outside the U.S. in Bangalore.
Indeed, Indian-Americans have proven instrumental in both accelerating India’s growth and strengthening the U.S.-India economic relationship. They send tens of billions of dollars home each year, consistently making India the world’s top remittance recipient, with nearly $70 billion every year since 2017. An increasing number of Indian-Americans are moving back to India, bringing their U.S.-acquired skills and experience with them. Vivek Wadhwa, a U.S.-based entrepreneur who has studied the Indian diaspora, believes the trickle has turned into a flood, with more than 1 lakh Indians—many of them scientists and engineers—returning each year. ‘These are highly skilled people who have taken back billions of dollars’ worth of wealth and the knowledge of western markets with them,’ he says.
Why Have Indian-Americans Succeeded So Spectacularly?
For all its shortcomings, India’s test-based education system prizes math and science, making them highly respected—and extremely competitive—fields of study, which produce one of the world’s best-trained technical workforces. And thanks to the imperial Brits, Indians arrive in the U.S. not just well-educated, but also extremely proficient in English, the global language of business.
Furthermore, Indians—unlike the Chinese—are familiar with the workings of a capitalist democracy and adept at navigating the minefields of a raucous, multi-ethnic society defined by competing interests. ‘To be successful in foreign countries, you’ve got to walk a mile in the shoes of those people,’ Indra Nooyi once explained. ‘You retain your Indian-ness, but you also have to adapt to what that country needs. If you remain too isolated, you will never be successful.’
Some argue that it is precisely the experience of growing up in India that enables its immigrants to accomplish so much abroad.
Living cheek by jowl with a billion-plus people of different backgrounds and faiths goes a long way toward fostering resilience, tolerance and flexibility—all characteristics associated with success.
In fact, India’s unwieldy bureaucracy may provide the ideal training ground for an aspiring entrepreneur, who is unlikely ever to face a more complex or frustrating set of challenges.
Perhaps not coincidentally, Indian-Americans remain less troubled by discrimination than other Asians.
Their unwavering commitment to family keeps them stable and rooted.
It’s all About, And Within, A ‘National Family’
Indians who venture to the U.S. are welcomed by an extremely nurturing diaspora network. ‘One thing Indians did right here that a lot of other groups didn’t do was once the first class achieved success, they started mentoring and helping each other,’ says Wadhwa.
Comprehensive changes to U.S. immigration law in 1965 led to a steady influx of skilled Asian Indians. At first, they held mostly low-level technical jobs, constrained by the common perception that while Indians made great engineers, they weren’t equipped to lead. But as soon as people like Vijay Vashee broke through that glass ceiling—hired in 1982 as Microsoft’s second Indian employee, he was heading up its PowerPoint division within ten years—they made it a priority to help their compatriots.
The power of the diaspora network isn’t limited to the rarefied circle of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Over the years, America’s Asian Indian population has broadened to include a variety of blue-collar and lower-level workers in other industries.
A whopping 40 percent of America’s motels, for instance, are owned by Indian immigrants, most of whom learn the business from relatives or friends.
For Indians newly arrived in America, the first stop is often a motel—in Wichita or Detroit, Sacramento or Charleston—run by a relative or neighbor from their home village. Before long, they’ve learned the ropes and are ready to branch out on their own. The rest is history!
Raghav Bahl is the co-founder and chairman of Quintillion Media, including BloombergQuint. He is the author of three books, viz ‘Superpower?: The Amazing Race Between China’s Hare and India’s Tortoise’, ‘Super Economies: America, India, China & The Future Of The World’, and ‘Super Century: What India Must Do to Rise by 2050’. BloombergQuint.