Seven years after nearly leaving India for Columbia Business School, finance influencer Sharan Hegde says staying home was the best decision of his life — as he now watches the world’s biggest companies race to manufacture in India.
In a LinkedIn post, Hegde reflected on the moment he almost walked away from India for good. “Why would I stay in a country that imports everything?” he recalled thinking. “America is where innovation happens.”
Today, the story has flipped. Hegde pointed to India’s rapid transformation into a global manufacturing powerhouse: mobile phone production leaping from 26% local to 99.2%, a jump from just two mobile factories a decade ago to over 300 now, and one-third of smartphones imported by the U.S. now made in India. Apple, he noted, is even exporting iPhone components from India to China.
The post was packed with hard numbers: electronics production has surged from ₹1.9 lakh crore to ₹11.3 lakh crore; defence manufacturing is up 225%; pharma exports have doubled to $30.5 billion.
“I thought Columbia would teach me how to build billion-dollar companies,” he wrote. “India taught me how to be part of a trillion-dollar transformation.”
The tone shifted from personal to nationalistic. “Make in India” once felt like settling, he said — but now it “feels like winning.”
In a final push, Hegde urged his followers to see everyday decisions as part of a broader shift. “Your next purchase is your next choice: support the transformation or watch from the sidelines,” he wrote. “Let’s make ‘Made in India’ not just a label, but our first choice.”
