Sridhar Vembu shares Indian student's dilemma in US: Rs 70 lakh in debt, no job prospect

Sridhar Vembu said Zoho has not been hiring much as the company transforms itself 'for the AI era'.

Sridhar Vembu, co-founder and chief scientist of Zoho, has raised alarm over the growing financial distress faced by Indian students pursuing higher education in the US. In a recent post on X, Vembu shared the case of a student who had taken a loan of about Rs 70 lakh at 12 percent interest to fund a master’s degree at a lesser-known US college—only to face a bleak job market upon graduation.

“The job scene in IT is bad, especially so for foreign students and payments on the loan are starting soon," Vembu wrote.

He added that he could not do much to help the student because Zoho has not been hiring much as the company transforms itself "for the AI era". "That caution in hiring is also because we have a policy of not resorting to lay-offs," Vembu said, adding, "I urge students and parents to be cautious in borrowing heavily to pursue degrees abroad. Borrowing heavily to pursue degrees in India is unwise too."

Vembu’s comments come amid troubling labour market signals from the US Bureau of Labour Statistics. The July 2025 jobs report revealed only 73,000 new jobs—marking the slowest monthly gain in over two years, the Economic Times reported. Revised figures for May and June further dampened optimism, while the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2 percent, its highest since early 2021.

Vembu urged students and parents to reconsider the wisdom of taking on large education loans, whether for degrees abroad or within India. “We should not trap young people in debt in the name of education,” he said, advocating instead for employer-funded training programs and broader industry acceptance of alternative credentials.

“The best investment we make as a company is in training and skill development,” the Zoho boss added, calling on other firms to follow suit to prevent young professionals from being stranded in debt.