The case has often been made for manufacturing exports from India as a means of inclusive development that effectively leverages India’s demographic dividend. But an equally persuasive case can be made for people exports towards the same end.

$125 billion worth of foreign exchange—equivalent to 3% of Indian GDP—flows into the Indian economy annually through remittances, which is more than any single category of merchandise exports. Moreover, remittances flow directly to households, enhancing consumption, education, and health spending.

To keep their economies stable and productive, affluent nations need to maintain, if not enhance, their ratio of working-age people to those aged 65 and older. It is an open secret, however, that affluent societies across the world are ageing—some more rapidly than others. To maintain their current (historically low) ratio of working-age people to elders, they will need an additional 400 million workers over the next 30 years.

India should aim to at least double its overseas employees to 36 million by 2030, with remittances reaching $300 billion and diversified migrant flows across Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia as well as across white- and blue-collar categories of workers. Other countries such as the Philippines and Mexico have already demonstrated how migration can be facilitated as a means to development.

In an exciting new development, the Global Access to Talent from India (GATI) Foundation was officially launched at an event in New Delhi on May 6, with Foreign Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar as the Chief Guest. Incubated by The Convergence Foundation, Manish Sabharwal, and Godrej Foundation, GATI is a non-profit dedicated to building structured, ethical, and circular pathways for global talent mobility.

One perception barrier to being proactive on the overseas employment opportunity is stories about exploitation abroad. But this is something that can be mitigated by government-to-government agreements, better oversight and accountability of intermediary agencies, and closer monitoring of and outreach to Indian workers abroad.

Another barrier is the perception about high anti-migrant sentiment in affluent countries, despite their crying need for workers. This can be met by negotiating Bilateral Labour Agreements with countries experiencing high workforce demands that open up a large number of temporary work visas for Indian workers. This gets around the political problem of anti-migrant sentiment because temporary workers are not on a path to citizenship, which is usually the bone of contention.

The government can sweeten the pill by addressing issues related to liability for overstays, illegal migration, and enforcement of temporary guest worker rules, assuming some legal responsibility for monitoring and compliance.

Apart from anti-migrant sentiment abroad, a domestic block impeding migration is the fear of “brain drain”. But circular migration, coupled with job experience abroad, will lead to enhanced availability of globally competitive skills at home—essential for globally competitive industry and services to thrive in India. Rather than “brain drain”, it will then be more a proposition of “skills gain”. Besides, of course, the undoubted positive impact of remittances on the Indian economy.

Another hurdle to overseas employment is that Indian workers’ skills and qualifications are insufficiently recognised internationally. This can be overcome by developing suitable accreditation processes, as well as by integrating global skills and languages into the education system at early stages and within worker skilling programmes.

A financing mechanism such as a trust fund or credit guarantee scheme—to support non-banking financial company-led financing of the skilling and immigration process—can also be established to make it easier for prospective migrants to acquire necessary skills and certifications and to alleviate the considerable expenses that they may incur during the migration process. Remittance processes can be made easier and cheaper using new technologies, and formal channels incentivised to make them safe and reliable, so workers can send more money back to India.

India currently has a large and unorganised market for overseas recruitment with 1800+ recruitment agencies, not all of whom are above board. The recruitment process often lacks transparency, with high uncertainty regarding placements and limited access to comprehensive information about opportunities. There is a need for registration and regulation of private players, so that accurate and essential information is transparently available to potential migrants.

An industry body can be set up to support some of these outcomes, acting as a central platform for government and private sector collaboration on standards and ethical recruitment, even as a “Talent India” brand positioned as a scalable, quality solution for circular migration is established. This could involve competency mapping, setting up qualifications recognition, and skilling standards that interlock with international benchmarks and patterns of demand, active outreach to the top 5,000 employers in target markets, professional help desk for issues such as visas or skill recognition, and creation of a consolidated database by skills that is discoverable by global head-hunters.

An industry body that performs some or all of these functions can provide legitimacy to the Indian recruitment industry with international governments, as well as legitimacy of global employers with potential Indian employees.

India’s demographic dividend means that by 2030, it will have an annual 10-11 million additions to its workforce. The task will be to find jobs for them. Transforming India into a Global Talent Hub should enable us to place 3-3.5 million additional workers every year. That is roughly a third of the job done, reducing the burden at home as well as helping India reap the benefits of its demographic dividend.