Write your abstract here. The Week (dated 11 Feb 2007); Column "Cover story""Title:Steel, Oil, Whisky by John Stock, London Shilpa Shetty, whose acting career in India wasn?t exactly booming, has bagged quite a few offers consequent to her victory in the Big Brother reality show in England: a role in Andrew Lloyd Webber?s Bombay dreams, a musical venture; offer of a 100,000 British pounds by Mirror for her story; a cosmetic giant is close to booking her for an Ad. And all of them in addition to 367,000 Pounds paid by Endemol, the makers of Big brother. Shilpa is not the only contributor to the ?India shining in Europe? syndrome. Gordon Brown, the Prime minister in waiting, is wanting to bring British business into India in the retail, insurance and financial service sectors, to reverse the one way traffic of business between India and Britain. Mukesh Ambani of the Reliance group, India, has planned to acquire an oil drilling firm in North sea. Ambani is a man of tremendous foresight. Even after knowing that the North sea resources are depleting, he has gone in for the purchase because he has discovered ?talents? there for his future enterprises in the frontiers of Europe. A more important man is, Vijay Mallaya, the liquor baron of India, who has plans to buy White and Mackay for 500 million BPs so that he could supply Scotch whisky in India at a far cheaper rate than shelling out high duty up to 550% for importing annually one million cases of Scottish whisky. Scotch is going to be an Indian show henceforth. Same pattern is emerging as regards the Health sector. Apollo and Fortis are bidding for contracts in Britain?s National Health Service. Many Indian companies are buying call centres in Britain. Mumba?s ICICI owns two call centres already in Northern Ireland. HTMT, the Indian IT company has taken over 3 companies in USA and they are looking for more in Britain and France. Shilpa Shetty seems to have knocked on the ?open sesame? door. Business men in the West have taken notice of India?s potential and onslaughts, as it were. India has turned into a donor from a recipient. The West has woken up to the realities of India Inc. With the current growth rate of 8% (likely to rise to 9.2% according to latest press release). India is set to become one of the biggest corporate players on the planet. Within 5 years, India?s economy will have over taken that of France and Britain. Possibly, next time India just won?t star in the Big Brother show but will own it and run it. What a slap on Goody?s face ! - - - - - 440 words By: Israel Jayakaran e-mail:
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