India wants to lure its best minds back from the US - but it won't be easy

US President Donald Trump's abrupt decision to hike H-1B visa fees to $100,000 has prompted policymakers in Delhi to woo skilled Indians back home.

A bureaucrat, who works closely with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, recently said that the government was actively encouraging overseas Indians to return and contribute to nation-building. Yet, another member of the PM's economic advisory council told a media conclave that H-1B visas have always served the interests of the host nation, and so the hike in fee boded well for India's ability to attract global talent.

The crux of these arguments is that the time is ripe for India to engineer a reverse brain drain and lure some of the world's most talented professionals in technology, medicine and other innovative industries, who'd left the country in the past 30 years, back to the homeland.

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