Benefits to home country while pursuing Masters in pure Mathematics abroad

Question

I am a senior undergrad from India applying for Masters in Pure Mathematics in the UK. Due to my weak financial condition, my masters depends on a scholarship that I will be interviewed for in a month. The scholarship is called Commonwealth Master's Scholarship and it is highly competitive.

While applying for this scholarship, there is a section about how my study in the UK will benefit my home country once I am back, and what developments can be initiated. This is easier to write when one goes for courses like Resources Management, Bio-chemistry, Bio-technology etc. Such fields require sophisticated labs and modern technology which India lacks. Students specific to these courses can learn these key attributes and then implement the scheme, once they are back. But what should a pure mathematician write in this case, given that, my research interests are mostly Measure theory and Functional Analysis and they bear no significance to the market or to the lives of common people, at least as of now.

I am not certain if this platform allows for such personal questions, but given the stake is my career, I decided to seek advice from here. In case this is irrelevant, please comment below.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Studying pure math seems to imply that you want to teach eventually, perhaps after pursuing a doctorate. If that is the case, and you intend to enter academia in India you have the basis for saying quite a lot.

On the other hand, if you intend to enter industry in some capacity then you can write about the benefits of the economic activity. Even if you won't be applying the specific topics you learn, your mathematical sophistication should be improved by the study, making you a better candidate either for academia or industry.

It only seems problematic to me if you don't intend to return at all, or to leave again permanently.