Why Donald Trump Deserves the Bharat Ratna

A tribute to the man who ended India’s biggest myth — and gave America its long-overdue reset.

Few weeks back, I wrote about Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, and Arvind Krishna — the perfect CEOs for the labor-arbitrage phase. I said the illusion of cheap efficiency was collapsing.

I didn’t know this $100K visa shock was coming. But the writing was already on the wall.

Donald Trump has just done, in one stroke, what I had already argued: 

👉 End the fantasy that India’s role is cheap labor for the world.

For decades, India 🇮🇳 was seen as a country of brilliant minds — and cheap labor. The world loved our software exports, service centers, support staff, and engineering armies.

But they never saw us as enterprise designers. And truthfully — we never demanded to be seen that way.

I tried.

I tried explaining to boards and CEOs, policymakers and ministries:

India must not be valued just for talent. We must be respected for enterprise architecture — for system design, product ownership, strategy-to-ops integration across 15 organ systems.

But no matter how loud the message, the reply was always the same:

“Can you give us 50 engineers in two weeks?” Or, just as often: “Can you send 2 architects — really meaning senior tech resources — starting next week?”

Until now.

One Decision Changed Everything

Donald Trump’s $100,000 H‑1B visa fee isn’t just a visa policy. It’s the moment labor arbitrage died.

In one stroke, he shattered the global fantasy that India exists to serve the world’s backend.

He said, in effect:

“If your people are that valuable — prove it.”

Why This Is Good for the USA

This isn't just good for India.

America 🇺🇸 too has lost something over the last 30 years:

• Its system design IQ — first it convinced Indian teams that coding = architecture, as a morale booster.

• Its internal architectural confidence — and then, even to its own management, enterprise architecture was collapsed into enterprise IT architecture = IT coding = digital transformation.

By forcing enterprises to rethink labor dependency, this move will:

• Bring architecture back to the center

• Value thinking over volume

• And restore depth over dashboards

This is not anti-globalization — it’s enterprise realignment.

100 Years From Now…

History won’t remember every president.

But it will remember the captain who steered the ship off the arbitrage cliff, and into the ocean of enterprise reinvention.

If 250 years ago, a 🇬🇧 British monarch had imposed a $100,000 fee or tax when the East India Company used Indian labor, products, and services, maybe India wouldn’t have been colonized. Maybe America wouldn’t have been built on labor structures it later regretted.

And now in 2025 — this happened.

Not through diplomacy. Not through negotiation. But through a simple policy stroke.

And let’s also remember:

In 1925, the U.S. nominal GDP was around $90–100 billion. In 2025, it stands at $30 trillion+. That’s a 300% growth in just 100 years.

Imagine if India — currently at ~$4 trillion GDP — builds the enterprise architecture capacity to match that trajectory. By 2125, we’re talking about an economy of $400–500 trillion

.

Two captains emerge:

• One, Mr. Donald Trump, who made the bold move to end cheap labor dependence and restore value to design and depth — not just delivery.
  

• The other, Mr. Narendra Modi, who now carries the responsibility — and the opportunity — to steer India toward enterprise sovereignty over the next 100 years.

Both should be lauded — not for politics, but for forcing clarity at scale.

To Mr. Donald Trump —

You did what Indian leaders couldn’t. You broke the illusion. You forced the reset. 

You made DIGNITY more expensive than dependency. For that, you deserve the Bharat Ratna.

For today’s 50–60 year-olds, this feels like a shock. The system that defined their careers has collapsed overnight.

But for their kids — 40 crore Indians between 14 and 24 — this is a wake-up call. 

Trump, in one stroke, became their life’s game-changer — without them even knowing it.

Because let’s be honest: their parents would have continued soft-pedaling the illusion of cheap labor, dressed up as tech jargon — GCC, digital transformation, AI, agentic… blah, blah, and blah.

That illusion is gone.

And what looks hazy in the next month… looks crystal clear over the next 25 years.

This is the foundation of a $400 Trillion India — if the new generation chooses to build it.

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A set of Questions & Answers drawn directly from your Bharat Ratna for Trump post in linkedin

Q1: Why say Donald Trump deserves the Bharat Ratna?

A: Because in one stroke, his $100K visa fee destroyed the illusion that India exists to serve as cheap labor for the world. For decades, I tried to tell leaders in India and abroad that we cannot equate talent with architecture.

But the global system — and even our own political and business leaders — kept the myth alive.

Trump’s decision forced a structural reset: now, dignity costs more than dependency.

That’s what our own leaders should have done long ago.

Q2: Isn’t this anti-India?

A: Not at all. It is pro-India.

This isn’t about celebrating an external shock for its own sake. It’s about recognizing that India was trapped in cost arbitrage — exporting coders and engineers while never building architecture ownership at home.

If this fee forces us to stop exporting execution and start building enterprises, platforms, and products from India, it’s good for us.

This isn’t humiliation — it’s liberation from the cheap labor trap.

Q3: What did India lose during the arbitrage era?

A: India lost more than just revenue opportunities.

We lost our product-building ambition, because our brightest minds were diverted into maintaining systems for others.

We lost the chance to define enterprise logic, because we were always executing someone else’s designs.

We lost decades of deep-system thinking, because the focus was on “headcount and coding” rather than architecture and comprehension.

Worst of all, we began to call this loss..... progress.

Q4: What did the U.S. lose?

A: America exported code but also exported comprehension. It lost its system design IQ by convincing Indian teams that coding = architecture, just to boost morale.

Then, it lost its architectural confidence, collapsing enterprise architecture into IT delivery, and IT delivery into buzzwords like “digital transformation.”

In the process, it outsourced not just work, but the very ability to think architecturally.

That’s why even U.S. companies today often confuse tool adoption with transformation.

Q5: Why compare this to 1825 medicine?

A: In 1825, doctors had tools, experience, and willpower — but no anatomy.

They amputated, stitched, experimented. Some survived, many didn’t. Not because doctors didn’t care, but because they didn’t understand how the body worked.

Once human anatomy was mapped — 11 organ systems, functions, interdependencies — medicine changed forever.

That is exactly where enterprises are today. We keep launching tools, GCCs, AI platforms, but we don’t know how the enterprise body works.

Until we map the 15 organ systems across 6 layers (P1–P6), all transformation is just symptom treatment.

Q6: What about the GDP example?

A: In 1925, the U.S. nominal GDP was about $100 billion. In 2025, it stands at over $30 trillion — nearly 300× growth in just 100 years.

That growth wasn’t an accident: it came from building internal architecture — financial systems, supply chains, capital markets, product platforms.

Now imagine India today at $4 trillion GDP. If we build the same structural depth, by 2125 we’re looking at $400 trillion or more.

That’s the opportunity in front of us: not just growth, but architecture-driven growth.

Q7: Who are the “Two Captains”?

A: Two leaders stand out.

Mr. Donald Trump, who with one decision forced the global system to end the illusion of cheap labor.

And Mr. Narendra Modi, who now has the responsibility — and opportunity — to steer India toward enterprise sovereignty for the next 100 years.

Both should be lauded — not for politics, but for forcing clarity at scale.

Q8: Who really needs to hear this message?

A: For today’s 50–60 year-olds, it’s a shock.

The model that defined their careers has collapsed overnight.

But for their kids — 40 crore Indians between 14 and 24 — this is a wake-up call.

Trump, unknowingly, just became their life’s game-changer. Because left to their parents, the illusion would have continued: cheap labor dressed up in new jargon — GCC, digital transformation, AI, agentic, blah blah.

Now that illusion is gone. What may look hazy for the next month becomes crystal clear over the next 25 years: this is the foundation for a $40 trillion India.