Klaus Meine described this song as his diary of the epochal changes that marked the turn of the decade in 1989. As the demolition of the Berlin Wall began in 1990, in many ways, it also symbolised the gradual disintegration of the Soviet Union. The wind of change was truly sweeping the world. Scorpions released the song in 1991, the same year, a minority government led by PV Narasimha Rao liberalised the Indian economy. Thirty years later, the world is faced with another seminal event. Filling the air are cries of personal loss, as Covid-19 ravages lives and livelihoods. While rising from the ashes of the pandemic, we know it has changed us forever. Life and business will never be the same again. Our collective trauma of being forced to stay indoors has reshaped our habits and reactions. While some mourn the economic losses, there is a generation of entrepreneurs that has risen, riding the digital wave that has lashed at us. Call them vulnerable, brash and heady with notional valuations, but these startuprenerus have dared to dream, build unicorns and even celebrate mistakes made. They fall and rise intoxicated with the desire to create billion-dollar businesses. In this issue of Outlook Business, we tell their stories. While we cheer on the spirit of the new, we also bring you the wisdom of sectoral leaders, through interactions with CEOs. India Inc’s future has sustainability at its core, and we tell you how and why.

As we adapt to a new culture imposed on us by a deadly virus, we know that it will be led by technology. But will it be built to celebrate diversity and inclusion? Sticking to our motto of helping you ‘Think Beyond. Stay Ahead’, in the coming issues, we will bring you dispatches from this altered, and perhaps improved world. We will be at this task relentlessly and, as Mary Poppins says, ‘only till the wind changes’ again.