Pros For India

01 Nov 2022 - Tanmay Jha

Pros for India

  1. Ability to outsource chores - Access to a cook really made a big upgrade to my quality of life. I have never had the patience to cook regularly, and in the US I usually resorted to takeout or eating out (Chipotle, anyone?). After the pandemic I started cooking at least one meal a day at home, but it was usually something quick and effortless like making a sandwich. Having freshly cooked hot meals with fresh vegetables has been a massive upgrade. I have had stomach issues in the US as long as I can remember, and those have reduced drastically in India. I believe the switch to a mostly vegetarian diet, having fresh meals with a low amount of preservatives and eating mostly home cooked food have all helped tremendously. I also really like not having to clean the house or do manual chores. Grocery shopping is outsourced to apps like BlinkIt and Bigbasket with their 20 mins delivery. Its time I can spend more productively, working or relaxing or socializing.

  2. Close to family and friends - this one is rather self explanatory. Apart from being closer to my immediate family, its great meeting all of my cousins, and anytime I go to a big city there are always some friends or cousins there that I can catch up with.

  3. Tripling purchasing power - This one is really great if you want to take a break, explore things or work on something risky like a startup. You roughly triple your purchasing power by moving to India, due to the favorable currency exchange rate, thereby tripling your runway. If you quit your job and live as a young single person in any US metro city, you will be looking at roughly 3.5-4K in expenses after accounting for health insurance premiums etc. In contrast, you can easily live on 1K USD a month (75-80K INR) in major Indian cities like Bangalore, Delhi or Bombay. It drastically increases your runway, and lets you take risks without derailing long term financial goals.

  4. Tech ecosystem - software startups in India are exploding in numbers and funding, and salaries are rising fast. This is a combination of VC funding flowing into startups, US companies increasing hiring in India and a net shortage of high quality developers in the market. For instance, total compensation for a SDE2 at Microsoft or Amazon in India can range from 40-80 lakhs. These amounts were unimaginable even 5 years ago! Also as more projects and workflows move to India, and as startups focus on the Indian market, the quality of work has also become a lot better. Working in India no longer means working on outsourced, low impact work.

Compared to other English-speaking developed economies

Once you have decided that long term life in the US is not on the table, the alternatives depend on your skill set, connections and immigration options. Setting aside the default option (India) for a moment, us Indians are generally limited to English speaking developed countries - Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand etc. Now if you work in the tech/software industry, then Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand all come with a massive pay cut, and generally similar cost of living as the US. Healthcare and taxes aside, a pay cut from Seattle, USA to Vancouver, Canada would be roughly 40% after accounting for currency conversion. On top of that, you would face a very similar cost of living and higher taxes. On the other hand, tech compensation in India has exploded in the last few years, and talented SDE2s can fetch anywhere between 40 to 80 lakhs in total compensation. This is roughly a third of what you make in the US, and a little over half of what you make in Canada, but for a much lower cost of living(roughly a third). This is where it becomes a personal decision - a tradeoff between pay, certainty and living standard. In a non-US developed country, you would get a developed world quality of life, good infrastructure and a better work life balance. In India, you get more bang for your buck (which lets you shimmy out of most developing country problems), get to be close to family, and get to be a part of a rapidly developing tech ecosystem. Startups are a dime a dozen here, and if you want to work on something exciting, I think India is the next best option after the USA and China. Anecdotally, I also hear about a lot of interesting work happening in the tech sector.

When I was doing my contingency planning, the default option was for my company to relocate me to Canada. I realized I had no wish to go to Canada. The pay cut was definitely a factor, but also I had no connections to Canada. After 8 years, the US had become a second home for me. I understood their culture, politics, institutions and social mores. I had friends and connections - I went to school there, got my first job, learnt to drive a car etc. Canada on the other hand, was nothing to me - no friends, no connections, no professional network. It would be starting again from scratch, other than understanding some cultural factors common with the US. If I was going to start a new life, I would much rather at least give India a fair shot and be closer to my home and family.