Raghu Mahajan Writes: Researchers Who Return to India Nurture Talent

I am a scientist conducting research in string theory, quantum gravity and related topics in theoretical physics.

I lived in Chandigarh until the end of Class 12 and spent two years as an undergraduate at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi before transferring to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts in August 2008.

After spending 16 years abroad, in August 2024, I returned to India as a faculty member at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS), a research institute established in 2007 and located in north Bengaluru.

Flourishing Tradition

India has had a disproportionate impact on the development and advancement of string theory. It can be reasonably argued that contributions to the subject from Indian researchers working in India, taken as a whole, are second only to those of string theorists working in the US. A shining example is Ashoke Sen, formerly at the Harish-Chandra Research Institute (HRI) in Allahabad and now my colleague at ICTS. He was the inaugural recipient of the $3mn Breakthrough Prize in 2012 for “opening the path to the realisation that all string theories are different limits of the same underlying theory”.

The thriving culture of string theory research in India has been nurtured over the past four decades by a steady flow of researchers trained abroad who returned to work in India with a definite aim of teaching and training new students and advancing the subject while working in India. This is perhaps one of the healthiest forms of patriotism. Interested readers can look up the terms like “Gross-Witten-Wadia transition”, “Kerr-Sen black hole”, “KKLT construction”, “Gopakumar-Vafa invariants” on the internet, just to name a few things in string theory named after Indian string theorists.

The size of the string theory community in India can be estimated from the participation in the annual Indian Strings Meetings. The next edition, to be held in Bhubaneswar in December 2025, is expected to have around 200 participants, including faculty, post-doctoral researchers and senior graduate students.

In fact, faculty jobs in India for string theory researchers are now very competitive, with multiple outstanding applicants for each advertised position.

Return to Roots

String theory research is very theoretical and uses a lot of advanced mathematics. But unlike experimental fields, it does not require laboratory space or expensive equipment. This makes conducting world-class research feasible with minimal resources, the most important of which include government salaries, travel allowances and computing expenses.

Given these factors, on a scientific and professional front, it was an easy decision for me to come back to India and join the string theory group at ICTS. I did not feel at all that I was missing out by choosing to not accept a faculty position in the US.

That said, I recognise that this might not be true for people working in other areas of academic research or in other careers. I can also imagine that the decision to move back would have been much harder for pioneers like Spenta Wadia and others, who were the first string theorists to come back to India in the 1980s and establish the world-class research group at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. In fact, the idea of establishing a new, modern institution like ICTS was conceived by Wadia and his colleagues.

At ICTS, I am surrounded by exceptional scientists and the best physics PhD students in India. The positive environment nurtures young researchers and allows them to reach their full potential, as opposed to a culture of jealousy and nepotism that can undermine any institution or company.

I look forward to contributing to the advancement and creation of new knowledge in my subject via my research projects and collaborations, organising topical workshops and conferences in India to ignite new ideas and bring internationally acclaimed researchers for visits and training the next generation of young scientists.

Support Structures

There are important non-professional factors for anyone considering the move back to India. Luckily, in my sixteen years abroad, I was able to maintain a constant touch with Indian society, since my parents and brother, as well as my wife’s family, are based in India.

So, I used to visit India frequently for extended periods of time and thus did not experience any reverse culture shock when I came back.

Personally, I am also excited to live in a city like Bengaluru, which has a vibrant start-up culture fuelled by young, ambitious people. A lot of these folks are also making hard decisions to come back to India.

What is heartening is that there is a lot of support from the Indian community in the US to help people navigate issues they might face when going back to India. For example, ‘Come Home and Build’ is a very well-thought-out [online] resource for networking and advice for folks intending to come back to India to build start-ups.

I love the food, the culture of books and bookshops in Bengaluru and Indian arts, music and theatre more generally. While I was comfortable and happy in the institutions I attended in the US, I never felt fully “embedded” in broader society the way I do in India. Outside of my immediate circle of fellow students and professional colleagues in physics, I found it difficult to make friends.

Finally, I want to reflect on the wonderful fact that today, a student in India who wants to do a world-class PhD in string theory can do so in India. Multiple string theory research groups in India attract post-doctoral researchers who are foreign nationals.

I believe that India has immense human resource potential to achieve a similar level of global leadership in multiple scientific research fields. To realise this, we need gritty leaders to establish new research groups in areas where the conditions are right for us to be competitive. We also need increased financial support from government departments, philanthropic foundations and high-net-worth individuals.

The writer is assistant professor, physics, International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Bengaluru