The Indian programs are tied to other larger initiatives by the Indian government so they are obfuscated.
For example, for semiconductors and chip design, a portion of the semiconductor subsidy that the Indian government is giving is earmarked for university R&D, and individual INIs [0] (top public Indian STEM universities) are given matching grants (around $50K) that are earmarked as lab seed funding with an additional $50K dollar-for-dollar match when creating a lab with a private sector partner (and plenty of EU domiciled firms like NXP and Infineon participate in this), so the right PI can make an NXP branded lab with $150k in seed capital and an in-built commercialization pipeline.
It's a similar story for Battery Tech, Drones, and Biopharma as well.
On top of that, most top researchers will choose to work in a private sector R&D group like Microsoft Research India or Samsung Research India which pay EU level salaries, give US level backing for internal research, and have none of the academic politics.
And this is just 1 (large) country. Other countries like China, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Singapore, etc have equally if not more lucrative programs to attract diaspora researchers. European initiatives just don't compare when even most Indian postdocs at programs like the Plack Institutes choose to take tenure track positions back in India and even mid-tier IITs, NITs, IISERs, AIIMSes, NIPERs, and IIITs are attracting junior faculty with PhDs and post-docs from programs like Purdue, UCLA, UW, UIUC, Yale, etc.
On top of that, major diaspora American VC funds like Foundation Capital and Sequoia/PeakXV are running their own versions of YC targeting grads from these programs to build in both India and the US.
And this is nothing compared to initiatives that the Chinese government have been running to attract Chinese diaspora academics, and more establish programs created by the Japanese and Australians that have operated since the 1970s.
alephnerd|8 months ago
For example, for semiconductors and chip design, a portion of the semiconductor subsidy that the Indian government is giving is earmarked for university R&D, and individual INIs [0] (top public Indian STEM universities) are given matching grants (around $50K) that are earmarked as lab seed funding with an additional $50K dollar-for-dollar match when creating a lab with a private sector partner (and plenty of EU domiciled firms like NXP and Infineon participate in this), so the right PI can make an NXP branded lab with $150k in seed capital and an in-built commercialization pipeline.
It's a similar story for Battery Tech, Drones, and Biopharma as well.
On top of that, most top researchers will choose to work in a private sector R&D group like Microsoft Research India or Samsung Research India which pay EU level salaries, give US level backing for internal research, and have none of the academic politics.
And this is just 1 (large) country. Other countries like China, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Singapore, etc have equally if not more lucrative programs to attract diaspora researchers. European initiatives just don't compare when even most Indian postdocs at programs like the Plack Institutes choose to take tenure track positions back in India and even mid-tier IITs, NITs, IISERs, AIIMSes, NIPERs, and IIITs are attracting junior faculty with PhDs and post-docs from programs like Purdue, UCLA, UW, UIUC, Yale, etc.
On top of that, major diaspora American VC funds like Foundation Capital and Sequoia/PeakXV are running their own versions of YC targeting grads from these programs to build in both India and the US.
And this is nothing compared to initiatives that the Chinese government have been running to attract Chinese diaspora academics, and more establish programs created by the Japanese and Australians that have operated since the 1970s.
[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutes_of_National_Importa...