Dear Reader,

One of the things that the year 2013 taught us is this—that no matter how grim a picture we may paint about India, that no matter how frequent the extent of embarrassing television footage from the country that is beamed out to the world, the Global Indian community is more than willing to engage very vigorously with India, provided, of course, they “see” that things will change for the better. Seeing, after all, is believing.

One of the finest examples of this vigorous engagement was witnessed in the manner in which the Global Indians, spread across geographies, supported the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in very large numbers throughout 2013. This vital support triggered one of the most meaningful, and powerful, social revolutions in India. And it has already begun to impact the political landscape like never before. The phenomenal rise of the AAP—described as “one the most successful startups by an IIT-ian ever”—has one defining message to convey: if the project is promising and its implementation transparent, then people will invest their time and money, no matter what. Even if they happen to be sitting thousands of miles away.

Talking of investments, we at the India Empire Group decided to be a part of the first Global Indian Business Conference that is being held on January 10, 2014 at the Federation House. It is an investment summit that in its inaugural year will provide Global Indians a national-level platform to engage with Indian Government and Industry in specific sectors—healthcare and medical value travel, urban infrastructure, tourism and hospitality, education and infrastructure finance. You can visit www.gibc2014.com for details. The platform promises to bring in fresh thoughts and ideas. It also should open up new opportunities for Global Indians and the global investors community at large for starting to look at India as a safe and promising destination for their investments.

Like last year, on our cover we have put a few Global Indians who have made impactful news during 2013. We have interviews with a few of them, for instance Dr Jayesh Shah, President, AAPI, Mr Inder Singh, Chairman, GOPIO International and Ms Jonita Gandhi, playback singer.

Please do fill us in with your feedback by sms-ing on +91.9899117477 or emailing us at sayantanc@gmail.com

Happy reading.

(sayantanc@gmail.com)