Indian Economy

I finished my lunch at the Belvedere in Mumbai and rushed out to catch a flight back to Delhi. I reached the airport in about one hour and Suresh, the driver, told me we had made it in good time. As I boarded a brand new Kingfisher Airbus A320, I could not help but notice the clean and awesome decor and, of course, the strikingly gorgeous crew. The exhaustion had got to me and I passed out in the comfort of my seat and in my sleep I remember a very vivid flashback...

It was back in 1986 and I had boarded an airplane from New Delhi to New York with a stopover in Heathrow on my way to business school in America. I was excited and happy at the anticipation of my arrival in America. I dreamt of the numerous opportunities that awaited me and I was on my way to achieving the ‘American Dream’ even before I had landed on American soil.

I now reflect and remember that for those of us who managed to get into a business school in the United States, we were the chosen few and thought of ourselves as being extremely lucky. Having just graduated from St. Stephen’s College at the University of Delhi, it was obviously another step in achieving my goal of corporate nirvana. The opportunities for some of us being BA Pass were few and far between. The US was a huge attraction and opportunity that many of us desired.

I felt a light tap on my arm and was awakened by the crew who asked me to fasten my seat belt as we were about to encounter some turbulence. Since I was awake I found it difficult to go back to sleep and decided to engage in conversation with my neighbor, Mr. Aditya Sadhna.
Aditya had gone to a local school in Pune and then graduated with a degree in commerce from HR College in Mumbai. After having taken his GMAT, he had been accepted at the Wharton School and Columbia University but had decided to go to the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta. He then turned down an opportunity to work for a global investment bank in Hong Kong. He now runs his own business which is an online social and matrimonial network. He is looking to take his company public by the 3rd quarter of 2008.



Gone are the days when Mummy and Daddy found matches for Bunty and Babli. The Internet has arrived. The days of the arranged marriage are gone. Incidentally India is now the fourth largest market in the world for Internet usage. The Indian Internet population is expected to grow to 100 million users by 2009.



As we landed at New Delhi airport I speculated that, in my days, I could never imagine anyone turning down an opportunity to go to an Ivy League Business School and an offer to work for a global investment bank. Times have changed, the Indian Entrepreneur has arrived, India has changed.

Nowadays I am on road shows, trying to convince investors, generally foreign, why they should be looking at India - that is, if they are not already looking at it. This requires me to travel to the US, from coast to coast, to Europe, and all over the Middle East. The beauty of this experience, which is enriching and fun, has been the many questions I am asked. Among them is “Why India?”

The questions have been many but the answers are the same and are driven by the same underlying themes. I thought to put these thoughts together in a book which I can share with everyone.

I am not an analyst, accountant or economist. These thoughts have been pulled together with the help of many friends and colleagues whose support is much appreciated.