‘Those of us who lived abroad for long know how much India's image got better in past 10 years,’ says Sridhar Vembu, Netizens argue

Crediting PM Modi, Zoho's co-founder and former Chief Executive Officer, Sridhar Vembu, recently remarked that India's image has “transformed” in the past decade.

Vembu says India got "transformed" in past decade

In a post on X, Vembu wrote that people who have lived in foreign countries “for a long period” can easily perceive this change.

He made these remarks while responding to a Journalist who had shared a news article on the platform, arguing that India needs to realise the “limits of performative diplomacy” and how such efforts do not necessarily translate into tangible gains.

Vembu said, “Those of us who lived abroad for a long period (like I did, 30 years spent abroad) know just how much India's image abroad has transformed in the past 10 years. That is the real yardstick. We have to thank our Prime Minister for this and that is the reason his popularity is so high with the diaspora."

Those of us who lived abroad for a long period (like I did, 30 years spent abroad) know just how much India's image abroad has transformed in the past 10 years. That is the real yardstick. We have to thank our Prime Minister for this and that is the reason his popularity is so… https://t.co/qqgUkJyF83

— Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) December 27, 2025

Netizens respond

Some people resonated with Vembu’s thoughts. However, several users pushed back against his views, saying “it’s never been worse”, questioning the basis of his claim.“Number of foreign tourists coming to a country is considered a reasonably good objective measure but that seems to be going in the opposite direction,” one user wrote.

Another user commented, “If India's image has transformed so much, why does our passport still rank so low? In 2025, only 59 countries allow Indians in without a pre-approved visa…The ‘yardstick’ of a nation's rise is how much the world trusts its citizens to enter their borders and we are nowhere near the top yet.”

“We as a Nation should be more concerned about the existing quality of life of an average citizen than what perception is carried by the global community and the Indian diaspora abroad,” another said.

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