India's Superpower Dream Is Just Another Recycled Modi Slogan

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The 2025 Lowy Institute Asia Power Index places India third in comprehensive power in Asia. But the same index says India's actual regional influence remains below what its resources would lead one to expect; its“Power Gap” has widened to its largest level in the index's history. That is the paradox of Modi's India. India has more potential power than it converts into actual influence.

The best proof lies not in GDP, but in where Indians build their futures. Today more than 18.5 million Indian lives aboard in 2004 as per the UN, and India receives the highest remittances, around $150.7 billion in 2025. Out of all NRIs, the most influential and successful are the Indian Americans. Many NRI's take pride in their success, but how much of it was built independently?

They studied at American universities, built careers within the American system, secured jobs in their companies, benefited from its opportunities, and live on their land. The American system provided much of the foundation for their success, yet they claim it entirely as their own. Irony isn't it.

The tightening of H-1B rules and Suspension of IT & Tech Firms from the Permanent Labor Certification Program (PERM) is a reminder that success abroad ultimately depends on the institutions of the country where it is built. When leaving India becomes the pathway to Indian success, we must question our idea of national development.

Modi built the narrative, not the capabili ty

Since 2014, Modi has turned the Indian diaspora into a powerful diplomatic brand, portraying their support and success abroad as evidence of a rising“New India.” The 2019“Howdy Modi” rally in Houston became the symbol of this strategy.

But NRI success reflects not only Indian talent, but also the strength of the foreign systems in which they thrive, not necessarily the performance of the Indian state or its institutions. The“Vishwaguru” image was built on the global success of NRIs, achieved outside India.

While India focuses on the narrative of its rises, China focuses on building capabilities. It has spent the past decades relentlessly building industrial, technological, and scientific capabilities. When India announced its arrival as VishwaGuru, China responded with an unexpected technological leap: the AI model DeepSeek, which stunned the world.

Today, we are in the AI age; whoever wins the AI race will be the next superpower. Guess what, the world's most populous country is missing from the AI revolution not because it lacks talent, but because it has spent years supplying talent to build America's AI empire instead of its own.

Imagine having the manpower to build the future, yet choosing to be the workforce for someone else's future. For example, Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella, CEO of Google and Microsoft, respectively, are extraordinary examples of India reaching the pinnacle of global corporate power. But then there is another kind of success.

A 32-year-old, Yang Zhilin, a Tsinghua and Carnegie Mellon graduate who worked in the American tech ecosystem at Google Brain and Meta, returned to China and co-founded Moonshot AI.