Mumbai: The Singapore-headquartered publishing platform Connected to India has brought on board Sanchita Guha as editor of ConnectedtoIndia.com (CtoI). Based in India, the editor will report to founder and CEO Himanshu Verma and will drive content strategy to broaden and deepen the reach of the news platform among the Indian diaspora across the world.
Commenting on the appointment, Himanshu Verma said, “Our vision is to become the definitive platform for Indian diaspora worldwide. We have taken solid strides in this direction over the past few years. With Sachita helming the editorial team, I am confident of consolidating our presence both in terms of traffic and quality of content. Sanchita is a highly respected journalist with a varied and long experience in the media industry and I am very excited about working with her.”
Sanchita Guha began her career as a journalist in New Delhi, and has worked all over India since then with several of the leading media houses. She said of her new role, “I hope to do full justice to the range of current affairs pertaining to Indians and impacting Indians — both non-resident Indians (NRIs) and people of Indian origin (PIOs) — across the world. The CtoI team will strive to always put the spotlight on the great achievements of Indians, NRIs and PIOs, who are now making headlines on a daily basis.”
She added, “The specificity of the website means that in every category of news, be it politics, entertainment, or lifestyle, the Indian voice will be heard, rising above the information noise. We shall be the platform that the Government of India or the private sector comes to first when they want to address the Indian diaspora, and vice versa.”
The Internet generation would naturally be one of the most important readership segments for CtoI, said Sanchita. “Apart from the vast Indian diaspora already present in our key target markets, India itself has one of the largest youth (under-26) populations in the world. This is a segment that is very open to studying overseas, settling abroad, integrating extremely well wherever they are, and yet remaining closely linked to the country of origin, taking a keen interest in Indian politics, culture, development — and this segment consumes news largely through the digital medium. We want to tap into this huge consumer base, taking the connection to the next level, where we become an indispensable part of these readers’ lives.”
Connected to India aspires to build one of the largest communities of Indians living out of India, consisting of NRIs and PIOs. The two groups combine to form a large population of approximately 31.7 million, making Indians the largest diaspora group across nationalities. With remittances (money sent to India from foreign countries) of approximately $107 billion in FY 2022-23, Indians are also the leading diaspora group when it comes to transfers to home countries.
As government of India’s minister of external affairs Dr S Jaishankar had pointed out in an exclusive interview with Connected to India, “Our diaspora is very different. They maintain their ties back home…since we are very family-oriented.”
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With offices in Singapore and New Delhi, and contributors across the United States, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates, Connected to India publishes content on its website and its YouTube channel. It covers a wide spectrum of issues that engage NRIs and PIOs and also impact them at the personal level, such as changes in the regulatory landscape with regards to investing in India; PAN and Aadhaar rules for NRIs; voting rights for NRIs; personal finance rules related to NRI savings in India, and more. Connected to India stays abreast of the developments and streamlines the information for the target groups.
