New Delhi, May 23 -- For as long as I can remember, studying abroad has been the ultimate middle-class aspiration in India. One of the earliest books that captured this obsession for me was Anurag Mathur's The Inscrutable Americans.

It follows the journey of a small-town boy who heads to the US for higher studies. Through his eyes and with a generous dose of humour the book explores India's fascination with the West, the prestige attached to foreign education and the belief that better opportunities lie overseas. Decades later, that aspiration hasn't faded. If anything, it has spread deeper into many more households. But what has changed significantly is the economic logic.

The global economy is more uncertain, job markets are tighter, ...