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Prime Minister Narendra Modi salutes during the Independence Day ceremony at the Red Fort, New Delhi, 15 August 2026.
Read the cover storyThe Cover Story ·Heritage
The Western Heaven now has embassies: how the world has always seen India
On India's 80th Independence Day, the Prime Minister named 'soft power' one of seven pillars of a developed India — the oldest thing about the country's place in the world. For two thousand years China, Japan and the Greeks looked to India as a wellspring of wisdom and wealth; today its 35-million diaspora carries that image out into the world.
Recent Cover Stories
Previously featured
Hall of Fame
Figures of the diaspora whose work the wider public has not yet adequately recognised
Inaugural Class of 2026 — coming soon.
The first cohort of inductees is being researched. The class will be announced as a cover-story feature later this year.
See the Founders' Roll →Archive
The Founders' Roll
Figures of the diaspora whose recognition is already universal · hover to pause
Kamala Harris
Politician, lawyer
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Rishi Sunak
Politician
Dadabhai Naoroji
Politician, economist, social reformer
Cheddi Jagan
Politician, dentist
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Sir Anerood Jugnauth
Statesman, lawyer
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Sundar Pichai
CEO, Alphabet/Google
Satya Nadella
CEO, Microsoft
Indra Nooyi
Former CEO, PepsiCo
Lakshmi Mittal
Steel magnate, ArcelorMittal
Amartya Sen
Economist, philosopher
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Astrophysicist
Har Gobind Khorana
Biochemist
Sir Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
Structural biologist
Sir Salman Rushdie
Novelist
Sir V. S. Naipaul
Novelist, essayist
Jhumpa Lahiri
Novelist, short-story writer
Mira Nair
Filmmaker
Sir Anish Kapoor
Sculptor
Kalpana Chawla
Astronaut, aerospace engineer
Capt Sunita Williams
Astronaut, US Navy
Sir Ben Kingsley
Actor
Pandit Ravi Shankar
Sitar maestro, composer
Mindy Kaling
Writer, producer, actor
Basdeo Panday
Politician, lawyer, union organiser
The Series Shelf
All series →The flagship series
5 of 5 published
The OCI's Guide to India
A reference series for the Indian diaspora navigating life back home — the rules, the routes, the practical work.
About the series →Also on the shelf
- The Yoga ConversationDiaspora Dreams interviews the teachers, scholars, and practitioners shaping how the yoga tradition lives outside India.4/4
- The Masters Who Crossed the OceanTwelve Indian masters of the long twentieth century who carried yoga and Indian spirituality across the world — published one a day.12/12
- Children of the GirmitThe Girmitiya diaspora, one country at a time — how the descendants of indenture built nations across the old plantation world.6/6
- The Living GurusThe present-tense companion to The Masters Who Crossed the Ocean — today's Indian spiritual leaders and the global movements they command.7/7
- The Diaspora PlateHow Indian food remade itself abroad — the dishes migration invented, from the British curry house to the Trinidadian roti shop.6/6
- Power AbroadThe Indian diaspora's rise to political power — the prime ministers, presidents and leaders of Indian descent across the world.6/6
- Mother TonguesWhat happened to Indian languages abroad — the tongues the diaspora kept, lost, and remade.6/6
- Temples of the DiasporaA diaspora announces its permanence in stone — the great temples the Indian world built abroad, and what they mean.6/6
- The NRI Money GuideThe money companion to the OCI's Guide — one careful explainer on each financial system an overseas Indian has to navigate back home.6/6
- The CrossingThe Indian student's journey abroad, end to end — choosing the country, clearing the visa, finding the money, and weighing the return.5/5
- The Diaspora ScreenIndian cinema and the diaspora — the films made for us abroad, the film-makers we produced, and the stories the screen tells about leaving.8/8
From the desks
6 desks · latest
Visas & Law
The $100,000 H-1B fee, one year on: where it stands for Indians
12 Aug 2026Read →Culture
From Apu to authenticity: how the diaspora took back its image on screen
19 Jul 2026Read →Opinion
Generation Desi: How Indian Diaspora Gen Z Is Rewriting the Rules of Identity, Career & Culture Abroad
12 May 2026Read →Yoga & Spiritualism
Siddheshwar Brahmrishi Gurudev: the 'Siddhguru' who built a following online
13 Jul 2026Read →Education
America's new four-year rule: what the student-visa cap means for Indians
24 Jul 2026Read →Young Diasporas
Onam, explained for a child who has never seen Kerala
12 Aug 2026Read →
Every story lives at its desk — Visas & Law · Culture · Opinion · Yoga & Spiritualism · …
The interview voice
In Conversation
Healing, Conscious Living & Transformational Retreats
🌿 PART 1: Awakening & Life Path Q: You’ve shared that your spiritual awareness began early in this lifetime—what did that experience feel like as it unfolded? Yes… from a very young age, I was aware of many things that others around me didn’t seem to notice. I could see beings—spirits, entities from another dimension—
Exploring Yoga with Malin Loibner: Insights from a Youthful Practitioner
Questionnaire for Ms. Malin Loibner for DIASPORA DREAM Q1. What initially drew you to Yoga? Can you share a brief overview of your journey? My journey with Yoga began at a tender age, as I mimicked my mother’s practice while learning to use my feet. Over time, Yoga became a constant companion, offering me a […]
Exclusive Interview: Carla Natario Reflects on Her Yogic Journey
Q1. What initially sparked your interest in Yoga, and how did your journey begin? My venture into Yoga commenced unexpectedly during my formative years at the gym. While primarily dedicated to physical fitness, I chanced upon a Yoga session led by a teacher from the esteemed Sivananda lineage. This class offered a comp
Latest
Before Silicon Valley: how Indian migration to America began
A century before the H-1B visa and Silicon Valley, the first Indians in America were Punjabi Sikh farmers — met by mob riots, a Supreme Court that ruled them not 'white,' and a door that stayed shut for decades. How the migration began, and how close it came to never happening.
September 2026 US visa bulletin: what Indians should expect from the FY2027 reset
September closes a brutal US fiscal year for Indian green-card applicants — EB-2 and EB-5 India have been Unavailable since July. The October bulletin brings the FY2027 reset, when the categories are expected to reopen.
UAE widens its Golden Visa: more Indians now qualify for long-term residency
The UAE — home to the world's largest overseas Indian population after the US — has widened its 5- and 10-year Golden Visa to more professions in 2026, giving Indian workers a decade-long residency they hold in their own right.
Indian students in the US fell 6.9% — and the four-year rule lands on 15 September
The number of Indian students in the United States dropped to 352,644 in early 2026, down 6.9% year on year as visa screening tightened — and a rule capping most student stays at four years takes effect on 15 September.
It is not arrival. It is something like return — a word the English language uses thinly. The diaspora has its own word for it; everyone uses a different one.
Chhath, explained for a child who has never seen the Ganga
A festival with no temple, no idol and no priest — just a family, some water and the sun. Here is what Chhath means, when its four days fall in 2026, and how to give it to a child growing up a long way from any river.
Canada pauses parent and grandparent sponsorship for 2026
Canada has paused new intake to its Parents and Grandparents Program for the rest of 2026, IRCC said on 15 July — no new sponsors, though applications already filed continue. Indians are among the largest groups affected; the super visa remains the fallback.
India's consular services in Australia reopen after Delhi court voids the tender
A Delhi High Court ruling voided the tender for India's outsourced consular services in Australia, but let them keep running — and passport and visa services resumed on 23 July across six upgraded centres, from Sydney to Perth.
H-1B visa stamping in India in 2026: why the Dropbox door is closing
The 'Dropbox' interview waiver that let Indians renew a US visa by courier has been sharply narrowed, pushing most H-1B applicants back into consular interviews — and appointment backlogs at Indian posts now stretch into months, or longer.
EB-2 India goes unavailable: the July 2026 US green-card wall, explained
For the rest of the 2026 US fiscal year, no Indian applicant can be issued an EB-2 employment green card — the category went Unavailable in the July visa bulletin, EB-1 India retrogressed, and a new signature rule now lets USCIS deny filings after accepting them. What changed, and what to do.
Applying for an OCI card inside India just got simpler — no more RC or RP
From 17 July 2026, foreign nationals applying for an OCI card from within India no longer need a Registration Certificate or Residential Permit — a valid long-term visa with at least three months left now suffices, the Bureau of Immigration says.
Four Indian-born Americans named to Carnegie's 2026 Great Immigrants list
Nikesh Arora, Mahzarin Banaji, Sanjiv Chopra and Reshma Kewalramani are among 25 naturalised citizens honoured by the Carnegie Corporation of New York in its 2026 Great Immigrants list, released as the United States marks its 250th year.
Streaming the diaspora: how Netflix let the second generation tell its own story
When Never Have I Ever premiered in 2020, an Indian-American teenager was finally the star of her own coming-of-age story. Streaming did what cinema rarely had — put the diaspora's everyday life at the centre.
Tamil cinema's other homelands: how Kollywood conquered Malaysia, Singapore — and Japan
Tamil films have a second life abroad — in the packed cinemas of Malaysia and Singapore, and, improbably, in Japan, where Rajinikanth's Muthu ran for 23 weeks and held a box-office record for 24 years.
The overseas box office: how the diaspora became Bollywood's other homeland
In the late 1990s, the diaspora in the US and UK bought more than half of Bollywood's overseas tickets. Today the Gulf leads and 'overseas' is its own territory. How the diaspora's wallet reshaped Indian film.
Hollywood's Indians: from Irrfan and Dev Patel to Priyanka Chopra and Mindy Kaling
For decades, Indian faces in Hollywood played cab drivers and terrorists. A crossover generation — Irrfan Khan, Dev Patel, Priyanka Chopra, Mindy Kaling, Aziz Ansari — turned that into leads, Oscars and authorship.
British Asian cinema: from My Beautiful Laundrette to Blinded by the Light
From a Wandsworth launderette to a Springsteen-loving teenager in Luton, British Asian film built a body of work about the second generation — made by the British-born children of South Asian migrants.
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Kapil Dev, Gavaskar and Amarnath reunite in Singapore for the '83 Legends Tour
Mariners' Cricket Club Singapore will host the '83 Legends Tour from 7–9 August 2026, reuniting Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar and Mohinder Amarnath in what the club calls the first reunion of India's 1983 World Cup-winning squad in South-East Asia.
Paid post by Mariners' Cricket Club Singapore
Milind Soman joins Nutrazen to champion preventive health and healthy ageing
Fitness icon, supermodel and endurance athlete Milind Soman has become brand ambassador for Nutrazen, a plant-based, science-led nutraceutical company, in a partnership built around preventive health and healthy ageing.
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CodeSkin's CLARIFI AC Spot targets monsoon acne and pus-filled pimples
As homegrown Indian clean-beauty brands win a global following, CodeSkin's CLARIFI AC Spot offers the diaspora a targeted fix for the red, pus-filled pimples that flare up in humid weather — wherever home happens to be.
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