What was the significance of the group of Indian CEOs traveling with Prime Minister Singh to Washington?
From an India point of view, it’s the recognition that economic diplomacy is part of the whole thing. This is the first time that a bunch of CEOs have traveled as part of the Prime Minister’s delegation to any country. It shows how far India has come in terms of recognizing the role of business and entrepreneurs. They treated us like part of the team. It shows how much more relaxed people are about business and government. The mindsets have changed dramatically. Q: How is India’s role changing in the world economy? A: Look at the last 10 years. A lot of American companies came to India to increase their markets, but they ended up doing outsourcing instead. The markets hadn’t yet opened up. General Electric came in ’89, and they were ahead of their time. But they found this huge storehouse of human capital and the whole outsourcing story happened. Now, because the economy has opened up, and there’s more wealth, it’s also becoming a huge market. To give you a recent example: When the Par
