The royal life 

For centuries now, royalty has captured the imagination of people across the world. People watch royals with admiration and awe and discuss their sartorial choices and lifestyles animatedly every time they come up for discussion. This year, the wedding of Prince Harry and American actor Meghan Markle in May was a major subject of discussion not just in England but also across the world as millions watched the event live on television.

There’s something about royalty. And it is with this in mind that we at Fortune India decided to focus on royalty as the central theme for this year’s luxury issue. As editor-at-large Hindol Sengupta, who spent several days in London for this issue, points out: “For nearly a decade, the Fortune India luxury issue has tried to serve as a thinking person’s guide to consumption.” In keeping with that tradition, we picked out three of the world’s most exclusive businesses with a royal connection: milliners Lock & Co., perfumer Floris, and shotgun maker Purdey. In the pages that follow, Sengupta takes you on a fascinating journey into their world and brings you delightful anecdotes from these businesses. For instance, Gary Oldman wore royal perfumer Floris’ Special No. 127 while playing Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour since the fragrance was a favourite of Churchill. And hat maker Lock and Co.’s master hatter is an Indian by the name of Jayesh Vaghela. Luxury, to the connoisseur of the good life, is not necessarily about wearing or using expensive things. Real luxury is about pure whimsy, about picking up something just because you can. Just like royalty.

This issue also marks an important milestone for us at Fortune India. It is the 100th issue of the magazine, and one which gives us a chance to stop for a moment and look back at the journey so far, the people, businesses, and issues we have written about ever since we started off in October 2010. And it’s been a wonderful ride for us bringing you those stories, even as the Indian economy and the markets registered one milestone after another. We’ve put together a 100th edition special package for you, helmed by senior assistant editor Arnika Thakur, which takes a look at some key stories en route to our 100th, some major developments on the economic front, and how the markets behaved in this period. Chief executives from three diverse sectors also share the experiences during their first 100 days, and the lessons they learnt.

Elsewhere in this issue, we also bring you the annual Fortune Change the World list, companies which are doing good while turning in a profit.

Number one on this list of 57 companies from across the world is Reliance Jio of Mukesh Ambani. “If access to the Internet is a basic human right—and the United Nations declared it one in the summer of 2016—then Reliance Jio deserves more credit than most for expanding access to it,” says the list.

At No. 23, and the only other Indian company in this prestigious lineup, is Mahindra & Mahindra. The Anand Mahindraled company makes it to the list for being able to shrink its carbon footprint by 44% in seven years and its push for electric vehicles, despite being in a high-polluting industry.

The Fortune India September 2018 issue is on stands. Subscribe here.