In 2012, more than half the names on the list of India's 25 most valuable companies (measured in terms of market capitalisation) could be ones that you have not heard yet. Some of them could be involved in businesses that either don't exist today or are in nascent, experimental, start-up stages. Think bioinformatics. Think healthcare. Or retailing. Or even the restaurant business. The promoters of some of those businesses that will be thriving 10 years from now will be people whose names you haven't yet encountered. As you're reading this, they could be first-generation entrepreneurs, even the angel-funded variety, tucked away somewhere, struggling to give shape to a gleam-in-the-eye idea. They could be the progenitors of the business families of the future.

Improbable? Not nearly. In 1991, would you have believed it if anyone had suggested that 10 years later, the Rs 38,000-crore Tata Group would have just two entries on the list of India's most valuable companies? And that both of them-Tata Steel and acc-would be scraping the bottom of that honours list. It is another matter whether you can consider one of those names to still be a part of the Tata group, but we'll let that pass.

Up until the early 1990s, a clutch of old business families, some into their third and fourth generations, dominated much of India's business firmament. In 1992, of BT-500's 25 most valuable companies, five belonged to the Tatas and six to the Birlas. Ten years after, those two iconic Indian business families have two companies each among the top 25. And the four are at the very bottom of the class.

To anyone who has been observing Indian business for the past decade this churn should not be surprising. Till less than a decade back, the companies dominating India Inc. and enjoying high stock market valuations were those that made steel, trucks, cement, synthetic fibres and chemicals. Nearly all belonged to old family business groups. But all of them were businesses that thrived and grew because they were also highly protected. For decades, high-entry barriers in the form of stringent licensing for industries and a trade policy that discouraged imports helped India's older business families. With their economic clout came the inevitable hubris. India's older business families were powerful enough to corner licences for new projects, block new aspirants and dictate terms in markets.

Things changed in the 1990s. With the dismantling of industrial licensing and freeing up of imports, the entry barriers collapsed and big business families faced new challenges. For the descendants of the founders of India's business dynasties it was no longer the inheritance that was all that mattered. They now had to recreate their companies to be able to survive in a new global economy, where competition was not just from new local players but also from the world's best. Suddenly, they found that from being the leaders in the market, they were nobodies. In many categories companies run by Indian business families got decimated. Some disappeared overnight.

Besides, there emerged a new breed of entrepreneurs. On the 2001 list of 25 most valuable companies (on the basis of their market caps as on December 20, 2001), there are 13 new entrants. Remarkably, some of those names were unknown back in 1991. Who had heard of N.R. Narayana Murthy or of Infosys? Would Ramalinga Raju have rung a bell? If you were told that a television company called Zee that had just been set up by an erstwhile rice trader would command huge market valuations by the end of the 1990s, would you have believed it?

When new business opportunities opened up in the 1990s, in areas like information technology, retailing, even telecom, barring a few exceptions, it was a breed of new entrepreneurs rather than the hoary old business families that was quick to make the most of them. True, a few of the older groups were able to quickly transform, discarding the flotsam and refocusing their businesses. But several others faded into oblivion. Where did the Mafatlals go? The Khataus? The Doshis?

What do the next 10 years hold for Indian families? For starters, expect to see further changes on that list of 25. And be prepared for more surprises. The churn goes on.