“Build Here, Live Elsewhere: The Unapologetic Case for Leaving India”

By CA Anil K. Jain
Chartered Accountant | Macro-Economist | Policy Researcher | Author
President – Ahimsa Foundation India

Core Thesis: For Indian entrepreneurs and high-net-worth individuals, “leaving” is not an act of betrayal, but a rational choice to escape institutional friction. India’s structural flaws—capital controls, regulatory unpredictability, punitive taxation on success, and quality-of-life deficits—render “remaining in India” an increasingly costly and risky proposition. Aggressive outbound deployment, particularly toward the UAE, the UK, and selective second-passport jurisdictions, is not merely justified; it is a necessary strategy for wealth preservation and entrepreneurial survival.

The Moral and Economic Case for Exit:

India is a wealth-generating machine, but it is an abysmal wealth-retention jurisdiction. The Henley Wealth Mobility Competitiveness Score places India at 56.5 out of 100, squarely in the lower-middle tier, with weaknesses concentrated in fiscal attractiveness, capital mobility, and regulatory predictability. The data is unambiguous: approximately 5,100 Indian millionaires left in 2023, 4,300 in 2024, and an estimated 3,500 in 2025, with Henley noting that India is currently the leading nationality for enquiries in 2026. This is not a trickle; it is a structural exodus.

The aggressive argument here is simple: when a jurisdiction systematically penalises the successful, the rational response is to change jurisdictions, not to wait for policy redemption. India’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme caps outward remittances at USD 250,000 per resident per year, a capital-control regime that treats every wealthy Indian as a potential flight risk rather than a global economic actor. The tax code imposes residence-based taxation and compliance complexity that consumes time and capital better deployed toward growth. The Angel Tax—despite temporary reprieves—remains a philosophical signal: India taxes the very investment it claims to want.

The start up “flipping” phenomenon is the entrepreneurial corollary. Founders incorporate in Singapore, Delaware, or Dubai not because they despise India, but because building inside India’s regulatory maze is “simply too painful”. The Flipkart acquisition by Walmart for $16 billion enriched SoftBank, Naspers, and Tiger Global—foreign funds holding through Singapore and Cayman structures—while the Indian exchequer captured a fraction of the value created on Indian soil. This is not a failure of Indian entrepreneurship; it is a failure of Indian institutional design. The message to the next generation is lethal: build here, but domicile elsewhere.

1. The UAE: The Undisputed First Refuge

No destination has captured Indian entrepreneurial capital more decisively than the United Arab Emirates. In 2025, the UAE was poised to absorb a net inflow of approximately 9,800 millionaires, bringing with them around $63 billion in investable assets, and Indians constitute the single largest source of enquiries for UAE residence options . The aggressive case for the UAE rests on three pillars that India cannot currently match:

Fiscal Neutrality. Zero personal income tax. No capital gains tax. No inheritance tax. For an entrepreneur who has spent years building a business in a jurisdiction that taxes success at marginal rates exceeding 30% while offering crumbling infrastructure in return, the UAE’s tax regime is not a “benefit”—it is restitution.

The Golden Visa as an Operational Tool. The UAE Golden Visa offers 5- or 10-year renewable residency without employer sponsorship, with no minimum residency requirement, and the ability to sponsor family members, including dependent parents. For the Indian entrepreneur, this transforms Dubai from a lifestyle destination into a functional headquarters. One can maintain Indian operations, access Middle Eastern, African, and European markets within a 4-hour flight radius, and enjoy regulatory processes that are “relatively swift” and “predictable”.

Quality-of-Life Arbitrage. Healthcare costs illustrate the disparity. Average annual international private medical insurance in the US stands at approximately $17,969 per person; Singapore at $14,231. The UAE ranks around tenth globally, with comprehensive family coverage typically ranging from Dh50,000 to Dh100,000 per year . For families with aging parents and school-age children, this is not a luxury calculation; it is a solvency calculation.

The UAE does not offer citizenship—and it does not need to. The Golden Visa provides the residency stability and tax efficiency that India denies, without demanding the cultural assimilation or bureaucratic naturalization processes of Western jurisdictions.

2. The United Kingdom: The FTA Window and the Social Security Breakthrough

The India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), which entered into force on 15 July 2026, represents the single most significant bilateral opening for Indian professionals and entrepreneurs in a generation . The agreement eliminates tariffs on 99% of Indian tariff lines, but the truly transformative provision is the Double Contribution Convention (DCC).

Under the DCC, Indian employees temporarily deputed to the UK are exempt from UK National Insurance Contributions for up to 60 months (five years), provided they continue contributing to India’s EPFO . Previously, this exemption lasted a maximum of 12 months. The financial impact is substantial: UK National Insurance liabilities apply to both employee and employer, and the DCC is estimated to benefit around 75,000 Indian employees and approximately 900 UK-based employers . For an Indian entrepreneur establishing a UK subsidiary or regional office, the DCC alone can justify the decision, eliminating a “sunk cost” that previously distorted cross-border talent deployment.

The UK also offers something the UAE cannot: a credible path to permanent settlement and, eventually, citizenship, alongside access to Europe’s largest tech and financial ecosystem. Indian-owned enterprises in the UK have grown from 1,197 in 2025 to 1,912 in 2026, a 60% increase that signals confidence in the post-FTA environment . For SaaS, fintech, and D2C brands seeking European scale, London is no longer merely attractive; it is the logical next step.

3. The Second-Passport Layer: Caribbean and the Grenada E-2 Arbitrage

For entrepreneurs whose ambitions extend to the United States, the Caribbean citizenship-by-investment (CBI) programs offer a strategic bridge that India cannot provide. The argument here is not about lifestyle; it is about optionality under duress.

Grenada stands apart because it is one of the few CBI jurisdictions with a functioning E-2 investor treaty with the United States . A Grenadian passport does not grant US citizenship, but it opens a lawful pathway to E-2 visa status, enabling the holder to establish or acquire a US business and reside in the country for extended periods. For Indian entrepreneurs facing the interminable backlogs of the EB-5 unreserved category where visa numbers for Indian nationals were unavailable for the remainder of FY2026 —Grenada offers a parallel route that does not depend on the whims of the US visa bulletin .

Dominica, consistently ranked the top CBI program globally on the CBI Index, offers a 3-6 month processing timeline, visa-free access to approximately 140+ destinations, and due diligence standards that maintain the passport’s credibility with counterparties . The cost—starting around $200,000 for a single applicant—is trivial relative to the value of a second citizenship that can be passed to descendants and activated in moments of political or economic stress .

The critics who dismiss Caribbean CBI as “citizenship for sale” miss the point entirely. For the Indian entrepreneur, the question is not whether the passport is a commodity; the question is whether the Indian passport offers sufficient mobility and security. It does not. India ranks 76th globally, with visa-free access to only approximately 58 countries . A Grenadian or Dominican passport doubles that access and, in Grenada’s case, unlocks a US business pathway. This is not vanity; it is infrastructure.

4. The European Golden Visa: A Closing Window, Not a Rejection

Europe’s golden visa programs have contracted significantly, and the aggressive argument here is that the contraction itself is a reason to act now, not to abstain. Portugal eliminated its real estate route in 2023, redirecting the program toward €500,000 fund subscriptions, but the processing backlog now stretches to approximately 39.6 months . Greece raised its threshold in Athens and the islands to €800,000, with the €250,000 tier restricted to conversion and historic-building cases; applications collapsed 63.5% year-on-year in January 2026 .

These are not signs of failure; they are signs of demand overwhelming supply. The window is closing because too many wealthy individuals—including Indians—recognize that European residency offers something neither the UAE nor the Caribbean can: access to the Schengen zone, world-class healthcare, and educational institutions that do not require a second mortgage. For the Indian HNWI with children approaching university age, a Greek or Portuguese residency permit is a direct investment in the next generation’s human capital, purchased before the door slams shut entirely.

5. The Counter Argument, Dismantled

The patriot’s objection—”you should stay and build India”—collapses under scrutiny. India’s policy framework treats successful entrepreneurs as suspects: the Liberalised Remittance Scheme caps their global engagement; the Angel Tax taxes their earliest backers; FEMA complexity punishes cross-border structuring; and “reverse flipping” triggers capital gains taxes that penalise those forced to leave in the first place. When Razorpay, Zepto, and Pine Labs returned to India, they did so because domestic capital markets matured, not because the regulatory environment for early-stage companies improved. The conditions that drove them out remain intact for the next generation.

The entrepreneur who stays in India out of loyalty is not a hero; they are a captive. The rational actor diversifies jurisdictionally—keeping Indian operations where scale and talent demand it, while holding intellectual property, treasury functions, and family residency in jurisdictions that reward, rather than penalise, success.

Conclusion

The optimal configuration for the Indian entrepreneur and HNWI is “India + 1 + 1”: Indian operations for market access and talent, a UAE or UK base for tax efficiency and global mobility, and a second passport (Grenada or Dominica) for ultimate optionality. Each layer serves a distinct function that India cannot perform. The data—4,300 millionaires departing in 2024 alone, a wealth mobility score of 56.5, and a passport ranked 76th—confirms that the market has already rendered its verdict. The only question is whether the individual actor will move before the window closes, or remain in a jurisdiction that has demonstrated, through policy and practice, that it does not intend to retain them.