Understanding Asia’s Overseas Indians

Abstract

Globalisation, the proliferation of English as the world language of business, the rise of the service sector and the importance of technology — all things that favour Indians and overseas Indians — mean that the importance of the overseas Indians is changing relative to that of the overseas Chinese. In short, the overseas Chinese are losing ground. As a commercial diaspora, overseas Indians — as many as 25 million Indians live outside India — have never been as important as they are now, and their influence is increasing.