| Subramanian Ramadorai |
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The internationally acclaimed management expert Sumantra Ghoshal told a rapt audience in a posh Mumbai hotel in early February that India had come a long way. In the decade after the dismantling of the licence raj - the maze of controls and licences that governed industry - a transformation had taken place. A straggly bunch of inward-looking, family-oriented Indian businessmen, who thrived on favour and protection, had given way to new capitalists from the information technology sector, offering globally-competitive services. These new entrepreneurs, Ghoshal said, had successfully marketed "Indian human capital as a key strategic resource, not just a factor of production".
Yet, Ghoshal's words - heartening as they were - did not quite dispel the sober and introspective mood at the annual conference of the National Association of Software Service Companies (Nasscom), an industry lobby group.