Emerging India - 2006, The year that was

Everywhere the mood is bouyant with the word "growth" touching every day lives whether be it pay packages, land prices, stock prices etc. the year 2006 was a boon to corporate India with GDP growth during the last two quarters at 9%. The highlights of the year are

-> It is the year in which an Indian woman, Indra Nooyi, heads Pepsi, one of the largest food companies in the world. The day may not be far off for Indians to head companies like Microsoft, Dell, IBM, Google etc.

-> The value and number of outbound M&A deals have far exceeded the inbound deals.

-> Exports are at an all time gigh. FDI continues to break the previous records. For the first time, Private equity overtook IPOs in raising funds for the corporate world

-> Sensex is on a roller coaster ride - Does 30,000 look impossible?

-> Entry level IITians are getting overseas offers at close to $1,00,000 per annum. Investment Bankers and fund managers are raking in more than a crore in their pockets.

-> New sectors like Real Estate, Infrastructure, Biotechnology, Energy, Retail, Aviation, Advertising, Logistics, Supply Chain Management, Financial Services, Knowledge Process Outsourcing, and BPO in Pharma Sector are emerging generating multitude of employment opportunities.

-> Reversing the earlier brain drain, brain gain is happening all around in India wherein the well qualified professionals in the filed of medicine, IT etc are looking back to their mother land. These are the same persons who left India for green pastures in the industrialised world. With Indian economy booming, opportunities plenty and improved quality of life and infrastrucure, these people are on a come back drive.

-> ECB guidelines are liberalised so that the Indian corporates and financial institutions can have access to cheaper credit overseas.

The next few decades belong to India - it is in our hands to make India rock among the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China)