How Indiaspora connects the world’s desi community

An Australian newspaper recently ran a headline: “Singer beats Smith.” It’s about business ownership in Sydney, but it captures the steady transformation of how the German diaspora has become a force, now estimated at more than 35 million people spread across more than 200 countries. Last month, members from 25 countries gathered in Bangalore for the Indiaspora forum—venture capitalists and Paralympians, artificial intelligence researchers and art collectors, policymakers and meditation gurus sharing space. Scope is the point.Build slowly with purposeIndiaspora was founded in 2012 by entrepreneur MR Rangaswami. “We didn’t become an overnight success,” Rangaswamy said. “Nonprofits scale differently — it’s been slow and steady.” This patience produces something lasting. The organization originated in the United States and now operates in what Rangaswamy calls the “big six” diaspora hubs: the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Singapore. Its annual forum has become one of the few venues that takes a serious look at the influence of the Indian diaspora, not just its economic clout.Rangaswamy intentionally moved the forum away from the transactional energy that dominates most professional gatherings. “We do want this event to be a non-transactional event,” he said during his keynote address. “It’s not about pitching each other. It’s not about selling. It’s really about knowing, understanding and enhancing your area of ​​knowledge and enhancing your awareness of other things that are going on in the world.“This philosophy is evident on stage. Art collector Kiran Nadar discusses her new museum in Delhi. Gurudev conducts meditation sessions. Tennis legend Vijay Amritraj joins a group of athletes, including a Paralympian, to discuss India’s bid to host the 2036 Olympics.Missing linkFor Asif Ismail, CEO and publisher of American Bazaar, Indiaspora fills a long-unaddressed gap. Regional associations—Gujarati societies, Telugu organizations and others—have existed for decades, but their focus has tended to be narrow and community-specific. “Before this, there was really nothing connecting the diaspora across the globe,” he said.The organization made an early mark at the high-profile inaugural ball for President Barack Obama in 2013 and has since grown into a professionally run network with staff primarily from corporate backgrounds. But it hasn’t lost its community feel. Rangaswamy recalled a recent case in which a member of the United States needed to travel to India for a funeral but was unable to do so because her newborn did not yet have a passport. “Our members helped organize the event,” he said.On political issues, the approach is equally low-key. Immigration barriers, geopolitical tensions, mobility issues – these are real issues facing expat communities around the world. “We don’t lobby openly,” Rangaswamy said. “But we work privately with the government to communicate concerns and facilitate dialogue.”Not just remittancesFor years, the story of the Indian diaspora has been told largely through remittances—billions of dollars sent home every year. The Indiaspora Impact Report, released at this year’s forum, argued that this framework is too small.The numbers it provides are strikingly specific: 76% of overseas angel investors backing Indian startups are from the diaspora, with operations in 56 countries. More than 60% of Indian NGOs surveyed received diaspora donations; more than half used diaspora networks to secure global institutional funding. Nearly one-fifth of international collaboration research papers deal with diaspora relations.And there are influences that are harder to measure—yoga studios are popping up in every suburb across America, Indian movie theaters have transcended language barriers, and food has become banal in once-exotic cities. “It’s not just about money,” Rangaswamy said. “It’s about influence, culture and ideas. We have to measure the hard and soft power of the diaspora.”Why BangaloreThe choice of host city is carefully considered. Last year’s forum was held in Abu Dhabi; this year, Indiaspora wanted to bring the conversation back to India, and what better place than the IT hub of Bangalore? As Rangaswamy said, “Bangalore represents the new India – technology-driven, global, forward-thinking.”The organization now runs a variety of events throughout the year—a climate summit, global health discussions focusing on diseases like diabetes and heart disease that disproportionately affect South Asians, and a new initiative called Indiaspora Next that aims to bring younger members of the diaspora into a network that has historically been led by older generations.Sree Sreenivasan, the organization’s ambassador, said it wasn’t the internet that kept people coming back. “The network may bring people in, but it’s the ideas and inspiration that keep them coming back.” He describes the forum’s core asset as convening power – something that cannot easily be digitized. “One of the greatest skills of the 21st century is bringing people together,” he said. “You can do it online, but when people from 25 countries come together in one place, ideas and relationships deepen in a different way.“