A recent study by Elsevier shows that India has a 0.6% net inflow of scientists. Moreover, incoming scientists and short-term visiting scientists are significantly more productive than those who remain in India and those who leave the country. India is not losing productive brains, but is rather an importer of it, according to this study.
Publication data was studied over a 15-year period of tracking migration streams of scientists using their affiliations and countries they publish in. This study revealed that 64% of scientists stayed within India during the 15-year period, 23% were visiting or out of India for a period of less than 2 years, 6.6% moved to and 6% left India, summing up to a net inflow of 0.6%.
The incoming scientists (6.6% of the total) are most productive, visiting were almost as productive, and outgoing scientists were below average in productivity. These results can be put into international context by comparing UK with China. Both the UK and China display similar patters as India: they import scientists that are more productive than their country average and export those who are less.
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
