Korean author’s book “3000 Years of Karma Legacy – An Indian Baniya Story” unveiled in Dubai

The delegation also visited Korea Pavilion at Dubai World Expo 2020 and presented this book to the authorities there.

ACN Correspondent On Mar 28, 2022

DUBAI (United Arab Emirate): South Korean author’s English languages book “3000 Years of Karma Legacy – An Indian Baniya Story” was unveiled in Dubai on Sunday.

Written by KIM Moon Young, one of the top authorities in the Republic of Korea’s foreign trade promotion agency KOTRA (Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency), the book was launched during a high-level trade seminar of Global India Collaborative (GIC) in Dubai today in the presence of Dr. Ved Pratap Vaidik – a noted journalist, political analyst, and freelance columnist of India, and Santosh Mangal, Global President, GIC, Ashok Bhuwaniwala National President and other senior members of GIC.

Prior to this on Saturday, the GIC delegation, which was on a 4-day trade visit to Dubai on March 25-28, also visited Korea Pavilion at Dubai World Expo 2020, and Sanjeev K Ahuja, Editor-in-Chief, ACN Network along with delegation members handed over the GIC manual and the book 3000 Years of Karma Legacy – An Indian Baniya Story to Ms. Inhye KO, PLO, Korea Pavilion.

KIM Moon Young is currently the Regional Director, KOTRA and is based in Seoul.

The book “3000 Years of Karma Legacy – An Indian Baniya Story” is an inspiration from Mr. Kim’s original book “3000 년 ‘카르마‘가 낳은 인도상인 이야기”, which was written in Korean language and printed in Seoul. Mr. Kim translated his book into the English language for the convenience of Indian readers, and Asian Community News (ACN) Network got it published in India.

The book highlights the invaluable contribution of India’s merchant community Baniyas including Marwaris, Jains, Parikhs, Patels, Guptas, Agarwals and others, especially from Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and other states in making India the world’s economic superpower.

The author – a former Managing Director of KOTRA South Asia Head Quarters, New Delhi credits this community with the honour of standing India in the league of the world’s top economic superpowers, such as the US, China, and Japan, the G3 club.

According to Mr. Kim, the Indian merchant community Baniyas are called the world’s top 3 merchant groups along with Jewish and Chinese merchant groups. He has very interestingly narrated in his book how this Indian merchant community shares common business characteristics with the Korean Gaesung business community also.

In his book, the author has appreciated the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for introducing bold and revolutionary economic reforms, and called him the Indian version of Deng Xiaoping, the architect of modern China. Deng Xiaoping also had introduced a plethora of revolutionary economic reforms in the country in 1979 and made China what it is today.

Mr. Kim owns a very special connection with India, especially some states like Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra that have a high concentration of substantial merchant communities.

His very first overseas appointment was in India in 1998 (Dec 1997) in Ahmadabad (Gujarat) when Korea was going through drastic economic restructuring with the Asian Financial Crisis. After his first stint in India of about four years, he again returned to India in 2018, this time in New Delhi.

Since the Korean language book was written on the Indian economy scene involving the merchant community, the author decided to translate it into the English language and get it printed in India with the help of ACN to make more and more Indians read about what a Korean thinks of India.

The book consists of 157 pages with a good number of photographs, mostly shot by the author himself during his stay in India. It is divided into two chapters – Indian Baniya Story and Indian Economy Story, with 13 and 14 articles respectively.