There are hundreds of Indians abroad making a mark on different fields, far from the limelight. And for the past two years, those are the people FORTUNE INDIA has profiled in its Global Indians issue. Take Susmita Mohanty, for instance. Here’s a spacecraft design engineer who worked at NASA and at Boeing on projects for the International Space Station, an entrepreneur whose company designs habitations for Mars, and an all-round space junkie who calls the late Arthur C. Clarke her mentor. You would think she’ll be busy working on classified U.S. space projects. Instead, as digital editor Mansi Kapur finds, Mohanty has returned to India and is a passionate advocate of expanding the government’s space programme. She was one of the few people in the private sec-tor who pushed hard for a U.S. government waiver on the decades-long embargo on U.S. commercial satellites being launched from Indian vehicles.

Then there’s the story of Ramesh Awtaney, the man managing Airtel’s immense IT and technology network in 10 countries in Africa. Awtaney’s company, ISON Group, gets the bulk of its revenue from BPO and IT management services. At the same time, he has been investing in startups across Africa. He tells deputy editor Ashish Gupta that he wants at least 10% of his business to come from Indian companies.

       This issue is not just about Indians abroad. Associate editor Pavan Lall catches up with Tata Motors to under-stand the company’s defence ambitions. The company is confident that its imposing combat vehicle, the Kestrel, will give it an edge in bid-ding for the government’s Futuristic Infantry Combat Vehicle deal.