'I almost left India': Finfluencer says the real future isn’t in America anymore

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.”