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Boston Dynamics' humanoid Atlas robot. The company, now led by Rohit Prasad, is the world's best-known name in robotics. Photo: Damian B Oh / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Read the cover storyThe Cover Story ·Business
Rohit Prasad: the man who built Alexa now runs the world's most famous robots
The engineer from Ranchi who built Amazon's Alexa is now CEO of Boston Dynamics, the world's most famous robot-maker — a bet that the next chapter of AI happens in the physical world, and that one of the diaspora's own should lead it.
This Week in the Diaspora
- PoliticsNila Vikhe Patil elected to Sweden’s Riksdag — among the first of Indian descent20 Sep
- VisasTrump’s new H-1B order makes employer layoffs a factor in visa approvals20 Sep
- MoneyEB-5 grandfathering deadline nears for Indian H-1B holders30 Sep
- BusinessAdobe names Anil Chakravarthy CEO — one Indian-origin leader succeeds another3 Sep
- ScienceJainendra Jain — first person of Indian origin to win the Wolf Prize in PhysicsRoll
Diaspora Voices
Every family has a crossing. Tell us yours.
Diaspora Voices is our new home for readers’ own stories — the journey out, the object carried across, the first festival far from home. You don’t need to be a writer; tell it plainly and our editors help shape it. We publish the best, with your name.
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 2027 — 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
Jainendra K. Jain
Theoretical Physicist
The Series Shelf
All series →The flagship series
6 of 6 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
3 desks · latest
Opinion
Generation Desi: How Indian Diaspora Gen Z Is Rewriting the Rules of Identity, Career & Culture Abroad
Read →Yoga & Spiritualism
Siddheshwar Brahmrishi Gurudev: the 'Siddhguru' who built a following online
Read →Education
Sending money abroad for education in 2026: LRS, TCS and forex
Read →
Every story lives at its desk — Opinion · Yoga & Spiritualism · Education
The interview voice
In Conversation
Ashina Singh: three countries, one crown
Born in Durban, raised in New Zealand from the age of 15, and Indian by heritage — Ashina Singh now wears the Mrs Indian Ocean Globe 2026/27 crown, and heads to a world final in the United States next June. She talks to Diaspora Dreams about identity, resilience, and why, she says, there is “an entire journey behind the crown.”
Nikita Thakrar: ‘I looked Indian, but I didn’t know where I came from’
At eighteen she flew to Mumbai alone to claim a heritage she had only ever looked like — and spent two decades turning it into a life in Kathak. The British-Indian dancer, teacher and TEDx speaker on identity, the school she built and gave away, and her journey “from karma to dharma.”
Adrian Abraham: the 9-year-old British-Indian guitarist chasing a world record
At nine, Adrian Abraham is weeks from attempting the Trinity Grade 8 electric guitar exam — a pass would make him among the youngest ever, and the family has applied to Guinness for a world record. The British-Indian metalhead from Greater Manchester on Iron Maiden, A.R. Rahman, and the amplifier that makes his nerves disappear.
Latest
Kundanlal Gupta: the Indian who saved Jewish families from the Nazis
In 1938 Vienna, a Ludhiana businessman invented companies that didn't exist — to forge the job offers that got Jewish families out of Nazi Austria and into India. The forgotten story of Kundanlal Gupta, who saved about fifteen people, built them houses in Punjab, and never spoke of it.
Education loans for studying abroad from India, 2026
A study-abroad education loan can cover the whole cost of a degree — but the lender you pick moves the rate by five points and the collateral by a crore. SBI's Global Ed-Vantage, the NBFCs, and collateral-free international lenders like Prodigy and MPOWER, compared for 2026 — plus the Section 80E break and the loan's hidden zero-TCS advantage.
OCI new rules 2026: the e-OCI digital card, explained
India overhauled the OCI card in 2026 — a fully digital e-OCI record, online-only applications, revised fees, a new $25 fine and wider eligibility. Every change in one place: the e-OCI system, the removed six-month-stay and RC/RP rules, and what families must check before travelling.
The Lunatic Line: the Indians who built East Africa's railway
Between 1896 and 1903, nearly 32,000 Indians — mostly Punjabi Sikhs — built the 600-mile 'Lunatic Line' from Mombasa to Lake Victoria. Some 2,493 died; 6,724 stayed to found East Africa's Indian community. The forgotten origin story of a diaspora.
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.
The $127 billion homecoming: how NRIs became India's financial backstop
Between June and August 2026, non-resident Indians poured a record $127.23 billion into FCNR deposits under an RBI swap facility — a diaspora-built buffer for a rupee under strain. How 35 million people abroad became India's financial backstop.
In the AI age, an Indian Africa specialist bets on human expertise
Renuka Natu, founder of luxury travel company Africa with Renuka — born in Wai, in the hills below Panchgani — on why, in an age of AI itineraries, true luxury is human expertise and time well spent.
Greece's €250,000 Golden Visa: what it really costs an Indian family
Greece's Golden Visa still runs on property you own — but the advertised €250,000 is a narrow special route (the real floor is €400k–€800k), and a 15% tax on non-EU buyers lands in 2027. What an Indian family should weigh before buying a European Plan B.
Anil Chakravarthy to succeed Shantanu Narayen as Adobe CEO
Adobe has named Anil Chakravarthy — an IT-BHU and MIT-trained engineer and former Informatica CEO — to succeed Shantanu Narayen as chief executive from 1 December 2026. One Indian-origin leader hands the company to another, extending the diaspora's long run atop global tech.
Nila Vikhe Patil: the Indian-origin MP elected to Sweden's parliament
A Green Party accountant of Maharashtrian descent, Nila Vikhe Patil has been elected to Sweden's Riksdag from Stockholm at the 13 September 2026 election — among the first of Indian descent to reach the Swedish parliament.
The EB-5 September 30 deadline: what it means for Indian H-1B holders
File an EB-5 petition on or before 30 September 2026 and you lock in the Reform and Integrity Act's grandfathering protection. It matters most for Indians — the reserved EB-5 set-asides are current while the main queue is backlogged. What the deadline changes.
Trump's H-1B layoff-scrutiny order: what it means for Indians
On 18 September 2026 President Trump signed an order making an employer's recent layoffs of US workers a factor in H-1B approvals. For the Indian majority of H-1B holders, here's what it actually says — and how it fits the year's $100k fee and wage-weighted lottery.
The diaspora on your feed: the Indian-origin names to follow right now
The Indian diaspora isn't waiting to be discovered anymore — it's posting. Twelve Indian-origin names worth a follow right now, across screen, comedy, music, wellness and food — from Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and Simone Ashley to Hasan Minhaj, Raja Kumari, Jay Shetty and Padma Lakshmi — each with their verified Instagram handle.
From Merle Oberon to the red carpet: a century of Indian-origin women in the spotlight
From Merle Oberon — the 1930s Hollywood star who hid her Bombay birth — to Persis Khambatta on the Oscar stage, Nina Davuluri's Miss America crown, and today's Padma Lakshmi, Priyanka Chopra and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan: a century of Indian-origin women in the global spotlight, and the barriers they broke.
H-1B alternatives in 2026: the real Plan B for Indians
Priced out of the H-1B lottery? The real alternatives for Indians in 2026 — the O-1 that needs no lottery, self-petitioned EB-1A/NIW green cards, the L-1 transfer, and the Canada, UK and Australia routes that grant permanent residence in years, not decades.
O-1 visa vs EB-1A green card: which should an Indian choose?
The O-1 is a work visa with no cap or lottery; the EB-1A is a self-petitioned green card. For an Indian escaping the H-1B, the smart play is usually both — the O-1 to work now, the EB-1A to build toward a green card despite the India backlog. How they compare, and how to use them together.
Moving from the US to Canada as an H-1B holder: the 2026 routes
Moving from the US to Canada as an H-1B holder in 2026: the special 2023 open work permit is closed, but Express Entry lets you apply for permanent residence — often in under a year — using your US experience, no Canadian job needed. The real routes, the process, and the honest trade-offs.
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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.
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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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