Building Companies Between Markets and Cultures Indian-origin entrepreneurs are building companies that connect talent, capital and customers across borders. New research puts their contribution to global startup value in sharp focus, while academic studies reveal a more complicated story behind the success: access to diaspora networks can help a young business grow, but immigration rules, hiring practices, cultural differences and the demands of operating across jurisdictions can shape its future. For Indian-origin founders abroad, the business opportunity often begins with a connection between markets. It might be technical talent with roots in India, customers in North America, suppliers in Asia or investors who understand more than one business environment. These connections can help a company cross borders—but they do not remove the friction of building a business in a country where its founder may still be learning the rules. A new Indian Diaspora Index from technology investor Prosus and startup data platform Dealroom offers a striking measure of the scale. Its analysis identifies 205 current and former overseas unicorns with at least one founder who grew up in India, attributing approximately US$560 billion in company value to those founders using a founder-share calculation. The index says 187 of these companies—about

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Nandita Chakraborty: How an Indo-Australian Filmmaker Is Using Food to Tell the Real Story of Migration With Shared Table: Regional Heroes, Melbourne-based filmmaker Nandita Chakraborty turns kitchens and shared meals into a lens on migration, identity and belonging—bringing the often-overlooked stories of regional Australia’s migrant communities to audiences in Australia, India and beyond. Food is often the first thing migrants carry with them when almost everything else has to be rebuilt. A recipe can survive a border crossing. A spice mixture can outlive a house. A family dish can connect a child born overseas with grandparents they may barely know. For Nandita Chakraborty, that idea became the foundation for Shared Table: Regional Heroes, an Australian documentary that uses food not simply as a subject, but as a way into the much larger questions of migration, memory, identity and belonging. The Melbourne-based Indian-Australian filmmaker’s documentary premiered in the international competition section of the 2026 Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF), where it was the only Australian film selected. It was subsequently acquired by Cinépolis India for a limited theatrical release in India. That journey—from regional Victoria to Mumbai and now to audiences in New Zealand—makes Shared Table particularly relevant to the global

Tata’s Global Bet: How an Indian Conglomerate Turned Foreign Brands Into a Two-Way Bridge Between India and the World From Tetley in Britain and Daewoo Commercial Vehicles in South Korea to Corus and Jaguar Land Rover, Tata’s overseas acquisitions helped transform an India-focused industrial group into a genuinely global enterprise. Today, the more interesting question is not which foreign brands Tata owns, but how those businesses have been reshaped as part of an increasingly international Indian corporate ecosystem. For decades, the story of Indian business going global was largely about exports: Indian companies manufactured products at home and sold them overseas. The Tata Group helped change that model. Beginning with the acquisition of British tea company Tetley in 2000, Tata companies embarked on a series of high-profile international acquisitions that put Indian ownership behind some of the world’s best-known businesses. Tata’s own historical account lists Tetley, Corus, Jaguar Land Rover, Daewoo Commercial Vehicles and other overseas acquisitions as part of that internationalisation drive. The significance for the Indian diaspora is larger than corporate deal-making. Millions of Indians live and work in countries where Tata businesses now operate. Tata’s globalisation has therefore created a different kind of India-world connection: Indian capital

BrahMos Goes Regional: How India’s Missile Is Becoming a Defence-Export Brand in Southeast Asia The Philippines already has BrahMos. Vietnam has signed a supply deal and Indonesia has agreed to acquire two batteries. The bigger story is India’s attempt to turn a joint Indo-Russian missile programme into a globally recognised Indian defence-export brand. For most of India’s modern economic history, the country’s global export identity has been associated with software engineers, pharmaceuticals, automobiles, textiles and professional services. Missiles were a different category. That is beginning to change. India’s BrahMos supersonic cruise missile is emerging as one of the clearest examples of the country’s attempt to export sophisticated military technology rather than simply manufacture defence equipment for its own armed forces. The Philippines was the breakthrough customer. Vietnam has now signed a deal. Indonesia has agreed to acquire two BrahMos batteries. And India’s Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said in October that BrahMos exports are expected to cross $600 million, with the system becoming a benchmark for India’s emerging defence-export story. (rediff.com) The significance goes well beyond the value of the contracts. India is attempting to demonstrate that a weapon originally developed for Indian requirements can become an international product. The

The Indigenous Technologies Finding Markets Beyond India From BrahMos and Akash to Pinaka and the Dhruv helicopter, India’s defence-export story is moving beyond headline missile deals. As the country targets ₹50,000 crore in annual exports by 2029, upcoming exhibitions in Chile and Vietnam will test whether Indian systems can become long-term global defence businesses. India’s defence-export story is entering a new phase. The headline number is already difficult to ignore: ₹38,424 crore in defence exports during FY2025–26, a 62.66% increase from the previous year. Indian defence products now reach more than 80 countries, while the government has set a target of ₹50,000 crore in annual defence exports by 2029. But the more interesting question is not how much India exports. It is what the world is buying—and whether those products can develop into lasting international defence relationships. That question will become particularly relevant in December, when two major Latin American and Southeast Asian defence exhibitions take place: ExpoNaval 2026 in Santiago, Chile, from December 1–3, followed by Vietnam International Defence Expo 2026 in Hanoi from December 10–13. ExpoNaval says its 2026 event will bring together companies, governments and industry experts around naval technology, shipbuilding, maritime security and unmanned systems. For