The Wadias. The Kirloskars. The Hirachands. They were names that ran India Inc. pre-1990s. It was an era of grand, old names with grander histories. The Wadias of Bombay Dyeing were descendants of Nowrosjee Nusserwanji Wadia, one of India's earliest industrialists. The Kirloskars were descendants of Laxmanrao Kirloskar, the first Indian to produce modern farm equipment. The Hirachands were descendants of Walchand Hirachand, whose shipping company was one of the first Indian businesses to confront the imperialists of the British Raj.

How much has changed within a decade. The 1990s and liberalisation ensured that history, personal wealth, and pedigree were passe. Many of the business families that used to dominate the who's who lists began to disappear in the decade of transformation. The new business ethos dictated that profitability and shareholder wealth came above all else. It is an ethos born from a new democracy, a new plurality, in business. The greatest strength of the old groups in the control era-their lineage-became their greatest problem. It was no longer enough to be a domestic fat cat ensconced in a cosy family group. There were nimble, rapacious new dogs of war let loose by liberalisation and the age of the individual.

The 1990s unleashed a wave of pent-up entrepreneurism among the unlikeliest of people. From sweathouse software coders to fitters in gasket factories, from the urban professional to the semi-educated small towner, they all saw their chance. Sapped of opportunities by the control economy, the great, growing Indian middle class eagerly grabbed its chances.

The liberalisation of 1991 brought a more democratic system of business. It marked the end of license-permit raj, protection, subsidies and ceilings on asset size. Terms like competition, core competency, strategic planning, professional management, and entrepreneurship came into vogue. The liberalisation package announced by the then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh greatly increased the velocity of business. It no longer took months or years and umpteen visits to Delhi to get a licence for a biscuit factory.

The new democracy extended to finance as well. Equity became a viable financing option. With the abolition of the Controller of Capital Issues, market pricing of equities became possible. In fact the early 1990s marked a frantic escalation for the primary market in India; it was dampened by the 1992 Harshad Mehta scam, but rebounded. The entry of foreign investors also provided much needed capital. Government removed restrictions on foreign exchange for things such as opening offices abroad and hiring foreign consultants. That was a huge boost for the infotech sector. The rise of the professional entrepreneur, the birth of the knowledge entrepreneur and the acceleration in the services sector were all hallmarks of this decade.

As the tempo picked up, financing became even easier. The entry of venture capitalists added to the excitement. The new-gen entrepreneurism spawned myriad businesses in software, multimedia, telecom, retail, internet, biotech, professional services, and other knowledge intensive areas. It reached a frenetic pace at the end of the decade with the venture capitalist desperately looking for ideas at which to throw money. That released the dotcom generation, which in a mad rush to cash in tried to turn the laws of business on their head. It was bound to fail, but it imbibed India with more determination than its conservative mindset had ever seen before.

The last time India had witnessed a burst in entrepreneurism was in the 1950s. That was in the heady days after independence. Businessmen worked in conjunction with the government to help build Nehru's temples of industry and self-reliant India. The energy was quickly suppressed by a confused socialism.

The 1990s were a different era. The government had failed in most areas it did business in. The old families generated wealth chiefly for themselves. It was also a decade with no unified centre. Cooperation and coalition were the driving points in politics, but so was polarisation: each one for himself. From this unlikely mix was born the age of the entrepreneur.

-Seema Shukla

The New Women In Our Lives

Khemlani: Not much competition cleaning skyscrapers

Swarup and Sapra: No one asks for the boss any more

Hussain: Empress of a self-made multicrore herbal empire

By Indian standards, you couldn't accuse Ishita Swarup's parents of being conservative. They watched with pride as Swarup got her MBA and later a cushy job managing brands Cadbury India. But when she and friend Tina Sapra, an advertising professional, decided to quit their jobs and become entrepreneurs in 1992-they were both in their mid 20s-Swarup's father, a government servant, threw a fit. "My father threatened to disown me," she recalls today with a smile. Entrepreneurism was itself new at the start of the decade, the concept of women entrepreneurs was newer still. Today Swarup and Sapra's call centre in Delhi employs 220 employees and is a Rs 3 crore business, and growing. Prospective customers no longer ask if they can meet the boss. Their parents couldn't be prouder.

The double whammy for the woman entrepreneur is fading fast. And women know it. "There is something in the atmosphere that is changing," says Revathi Kasturi, 41, President, Tarang Software. "Even society is more supportive. After 20 years in the Indian it industry, 18 of them with the largest of them all, Wipro, Revathi Kasturi (B. Tech, IIT Mumbai, class of 1980) rose to be chief executive of Wipro's system integration division, then doing business worth $50 million. In March 2000, single, supporting a daughter and mother, she set up Tarang with her techie brother and another professional.

According to an Ernst & Young study in 2000, entrepreneurial activity among women is nearly half that of men in India (6.3 per cent). In economies like Canada, Spain and Brazil the participation of women is only slightly less or equal to male participation. But the last five to seven years have not just witnessed a rapid increase in women of enterprise but also seen a change in the nature of their enterprise. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry's ladies organisation reports a 100 per cent growth in its ranks of women entrepreneurs in the last five years. The Federation of Indian Women Entrepreneurs has seen a 35 per cent increase in the same period.

Earlier garment exports, handicrafts, and leather exports were traditional female domains, then health and beauty became a bastion. Shahnaz Hussain, daughter of a former Chief Justice of India, borrowed Rs 35,000 from her father to build her herbal empire, estimated to be worth Rs 250 crore today.

Today there new fields of dreams. From biotechnology to skyscraper-cleaning companies, you name it-you will find a woman running it. There's Kiran Mazumdar, a brewing expert who didn't find work and set up her own company in 1978. It was in the 1990s that she really found her forte: biotechnology. Then there are those like Suhag Khemlani, 24, who decided in 1998 to make her living cleaning India's new skyscrapers. "I faced a lot of attitude initially from people reluctant to take orders from a girl," she says. "Now they realise I can compete with the best."

-Seema Shukla

Why Salarymen Turned To Entrepreneurism

Soota: Taking the last chance

Rajam: Keen, able, and willing

For Ashok Soota, it was about the last chance. When the monsoon of 1999 swept Bangalore, he was 56, a vice president in infotech giant Wipro. Firmly middle age, Soota did seem to have it all. But what he missed above all was the ability to say, "I did that". Today as his start-up Mindtree Consulting notches up a turnover of Rs 70 crore-and aims for Rs 750 crore in the next five years-you could say he used his last chance to strike out on his own pretty well. Never before has middle India been struck so virulently by the bug of self-achievement. Soota was a pioneer in the field, and his example tells you what drove India's salarymen to entrepreneurism. First, as the nuclear family splintered in the 1980s, individual achievement came forth. Second, the loosening hold of bureaucrats and political interests on business. Third, the coming of the tech age allowed the ambitious to not just dream but do. And so they did. Aided by that wonderful new device-venture capital-the rush of professionals to entrepreneurism became a crescendo. That's how India saw the formerly staid salaryman willing to pose, dance, and strut for publicity and recognition. Srini Rajam, 41, conservative former country head and veteran of Texas Instruments, is proof of the salaryman's new avatar. Rajam has no qualms garnering attention for his new company, Ittiam Systems. Uncountable thousands want to be like him.

-Seema Shukla