Diaspora Indians On The Philanthropy Fast-Track

Priya Viswanath, pp. 260, Rs. 295, Centre for Advancement of Philanthropy Publication

This book celebrates Indians who care about India in a very special way!
 I am most grateful to:
Noshir Dadrawala, Executive Secretary of the Centre for Advancement of Philanthropy who had the faith and vision to support this pioneering effort. Noshir has been more than supportive and he has also been a staunch friend and patient observer of the many trials faced in the writing of the book. Working with the Centre has been one of the best experiences of my life! 

My co-consultants, who wrote the Far & Middle East chapters, Shyamala Shiveshwarkar and Renita Mascarenhas. Shyamala travelled, networked tirelessly and accessed the Diaspora in four countries and documented their efforts painstakingly. Renita worked under very difficult circumstances. Post September 11, 2001, people in the Middle East region were hesitant to speak about Philanthropy. I owe much to them for their contribution.

Research Associates, Kamini Karlekar in the UK and Surya Prakash Loonker who facilitated all my meetings; Ritika Prasad in India who painstakingly reviewed all the literature and for months worked with me on the institutional profiles and brainstormed endlessly about formats, fonts and page set ups! Shivani Chandra who conducted the initial literature reviews and several co-consultants at CATALYST who acted as great sounding boards in the initial phase.

Malavika Karlekar who guided and advised me right through the project and of course who has had to deal with three writers and their different styles and research methods ... this could by no means have been easy. As always no book is ever "ready to go" without the best editorial inputs and she has been just the best! I am deeply indebted to her for taking this up despite her own schedules and books that are in various stages of production.

Many agencies, institutional heads, friends in the Far & Middle East, UK, US and our Embassies and High Commissions in all regions were more than helpful in linking us up with Diaspora groups, key millionaires and hosting us in their homes. It is impossible to thank each of them individually, but our gratitude knows no bounds. Anup Nair, Deepa Wadhwa, Amar Sinha, Anita Nayar, Purvez Shroff, Ashok Kantha, Udita & Roberto Ripa, Bindu & Praful Chanderia, Jay & Nalini Mansukhani, Gopal Baglay, Navin Joshi, Netika Raval, Nilanjana & Bob Van Order, Harish Patel, Mark Sidel and Mayur Ghelani however deserve a very special mention.

I am deeply indebted to Gururaj Deshpande for reading through the manuscript at such short notice and contributing a thought provoking and insightful foreword. I am also grateful to L.M. Singhvi for his message on Diaspora philanthropy, despite his preoccupation with the organisation of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. To my dear friend and colleague, Shahnaz Taplin for sharing her perspectives both as an NRI and a fellow Diaspora researcher.

A special thanks to Hufriz Daruwalla and Jiji George at Union Press for the numerous revisions, the staff at CAP and also Biju Thomas who worked several nights with us on layout of the book cover.
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To all the relationships it fostered, to all the networks built, to my family and friends who never saw me months on end and yet never gave up on me through the many delays; to Abha and Bill Adams, Ashok Nagpal, Raju Panjwani, David Cohen, Deepika Erasmus, Kamini Prakash, Preethi Viswanath and Rahul Gupta who kept pushing me through some very dark days and who saw me through many ups and downs; I am extremely grateful.
To all the NRIs who gave us their time and shared their wisdom, dreams, aspirations and even frustrations ... Thank You!
 
Priya Viswanath
March 2003
Gurgaon, India