India’s New Soft Power? TERN Group’s CEO Avinav Nigam speaks at London event about India’s Talent Mobility Surge

London, June  03, 2025

The Ideas for India 2025 conference, a cornerstone of India Week hosted by Bridge India, emerged as a global platform for visionary dialogue, held at the iconic Royal Lancaster London in its premier auditorium. This landmark event convened over 200 influential delegates, uniting parliamentarians, government leaders, and trailblazing founders from India and the UK to chart India’s ascent on the world stage through talent, technology, and trade.

The conference was a powerhouse of positively disruptive thought leadership, featuring luminaries such as MP Raghav Chadha from the Aam Aadmi Party, K.T. Rama Rao, Telangana’s founding IT Minister; Sachin Pilot, former Minister of IT, Telecom & Corporate Affairs, Govt. of India; the former Chief Election Commissioner of India Dr Quraishi, Barbara Mills KC, the UK Chair of the Bar Council; and the founder of IPAC, a body ensuring bipartisan politics in India,; Lord Simon Mcdonald, the former head of the UK’s diplomatic service, FCO; and founders of major asset management firms further elevated the event, making it a melting pot of ideas across politics, governance, and business.

 

Discussions ranged from the UK-India free trade agreement—finalized after three years and three UK prime ministers—to the role of India in fostering global diplomatic support, underscoring the event’s far-reaching impact.

 

 

Amidst these high-stakes conversations, Avinav Nigam, CEO of TERN Group, delivered a compelling session on India’s emerging soft power: Talent Mobility. A former IIT Bombay alumnus who began his career 20 years ago in rural Japan, rising to lead Ariel’s Asia business, and later serving as a founding executive at Hotstar and Cars24 and the Co-Founder & COO of IMMO, companies valued over $10B, Nigam now is the CEO at TERN’s mission-driven business spanning 13+ countries, focusing on ethical migration systems.

 

“India has a surplus of 105 million youth aged 18–35, while the world faces an 85 million skilled worker shortage,” Nigam stated. “By 2035, 40% of the global workforce will come from India. This is India’s moment to take the world into the next decade as the global talent leader, setting the standard with ethical workforce systems.”

 

Nigam emphasised the urgent need to address human suffering in migration. “Exploitative agents are causing misery—modern slavery and trafficking are on the rise,” he said. “We need ethical, transparent, digital systems and stronger G2G and G2B collaborations to protect vulnerable workers. Talent mobility should be a force for shared prosperity, not exploitation.”

 

Nigam also highlighted a global shift: “The locus of power is moving east. India, the fourth-largest economy in the world, isn’t just a manufacturing hub—it’s an emerging talent superpower, set to overtake Germany soon in GDP. Countries like the UK, with its new free trade agreement, easing rules for India’s highIndia’s high -skilled workers, and Germany, offering 90,000 worker visas to Indians, see this shift.” 

 

He underscored TERN Group’s mission: “At TERN, we’re replacing opaque systems with trust. Our zero-cost, AI-powered model ensures transparency for many thousands of thousands of healthcare & engineering professionals heading to the UK, Germany, the GCC and Japan, where we are closely collaborating with those governments”

 

Ideas for India 2025 underscored India’s opportunity to lead global migration standards, with cross-sector collaboration as a key driver. The event cemented India’s role as a global influencer, defining how the world’s workforce moves and thrives.

 

About TERN Group
TERN Group is helping 650,000+ professionals on its platform. TERN Group is a global AI leader in ethical, tech-enabled talent mobility, connecting skilled professionals to overseas opportunities with transparency. Operating in 13+ countries, TERN partners with 80+ German providers, 18+ NHS Trusts, along with GCC, US & Japan clients.