Sanjaya Baru is a former Editor, The Financial Express and Business Standard. He was a Professor at the Indian Council for Research in International Economic Relations (ICRIER) and at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore. Baru was Director for Geo-economics and Strategy at the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), London. He was Media Advisor and Spokesperson to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (2004-2008) and wrote the bestseller, The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh (2014). His other books include The Strategic Consequences of India’s Economic Performance (2006) and 1991: How P.V. Narasimha Rao Made History (2016).
Baru’s latest book, Secession of the Successful: The Flight Out of New India (Penguin Random House, 2025), asks why India’s most talented and wealthy continue to leave, and why so few return. While the government celebrates the diaspora at Pravasi Bharatiya events, Baru probes why the “Pravasi” rarely makes the journey back. He explores the rise of the “Non-Returning Indian” and argues that the diaspora is far from homogeneous. From migration patterns and the diaspora economy to the affluent “Dubai Bling” generation, Baru, with his trademark clarity, challenges us to rethink the implications of this phenomenon for India’s growth and its aspirations as a rising nation.