When I sat for the Indian school Certificate examination more than 30 years ago, the test papers came from England and our answer books were shipped back for evaluation. A whole generation of us grew up with the subconscious impression that we Indians were not capable of drafting our own examination papers, and neither did we have the competence and confidence to pass judgement upon ourselves.

But only a few months ago, I was at a board meeting of a well-known business school in the US, and we were shown a slide which revealed that 20 per cent of the tenured faculty was of Indian origin. An American sitting next to me leaned over and whispered, "How come you Indians are so smart?" What an amazing transformation, I thought to myself, in how we are perceived by the world, and indeed, in how we perceive ourselves.

We owe this current perception to the prodigious, and very tangible achievements of our software companies and to the high-bandwidth NRIs, who have shattered the glass ceilings in global corporations. There are very few Fortune 500 companies that do not source some software solutions from India, or do not have Indians populating senior executive suites. Talk to them, and they will acknowledge it's not just about cost savings, but the superior quality of Indian brainpower as well.

But the credit for transforming the image of India in the future will not go only to expats and information technology (IT) techies. Here's a list of at least five more industry clusters that key Indian players will muscle into over the next five years.

The Manufacturing Miracle

Fifteen years ago, in most Indian factories the word productivity was taboo, and quality was discussed mainly in quality circles, which celebrated their paltry achievements in annual conventions that were more tamaasha than tangible gains. Today the typical shop floor buzzes with activity, and three companies have claimed the elusive Deming Prize. Auto component exports have almost doubled in the last year to touch $800 million, and at this rate, we'll fast catch up to Thailand, an Asian 'tiger' that exports $2 billion worth of components.

When I was in China last month, I had the satisfaction of hearing multinational auto companies tell me that they were exhorting Indian component suppliers like Sundram Fasteners to locate final assembly plants in China since they were unable to source materials of equivalent cost and quality locally. In fact, a Chinese official acknowledged that Indian firms were more competitive in manufactured goods with a high element of skilled labour content. So much for fleeing from the onslaught of the dragon!

Healing the World

Built in record time, the Fortis Specialty Heart Hospital in Mohali possesses world-class facilities and faculty. The hospital might well leverage its salubrious location to attract a global clientele. We will always struggle to attract people demanding low cost, high quality medical treatment to cities like Mumbai and Delhi, where the dust and pollution promise to undo the benefits of the treatment! But relatively less congested and cleaner cities like Chandigarh could become global healthcare destinations. Already, the National Health Service in the UK is experimenting with sending surgical patients to India in order to reduce the burden on the taxpayer of high cost treatment.

In the same healthcare category, the emergence of Indian pharma giants onto the world stage is now assumed to be inexorable. With the imminent lifting of restrictions on providing low cost patented drugs to developing countries, Indian pharmaceutical brands will be gratefully acknowledged as lifesavers in many parts of the world.

Global Gladiators

As the divestment momentum gathers strength worldwide and transnationals shed some of their non-core businesses, you are likely to rub shoulders with increasing numbers of Indian players in data rooms. Emboldened by abundant forex reserves, the government will strongly support Indian companies in acquiring assets and markets abroad. New respect will soon be accorded to players like Tata Tea that acquire their way to global critical mass.

Brain Banking

It was the first wave, but it enabled services-both at the bottom of the pyramid (call centres) as well as at the top (computer-aided engineering)-will cement the reputation of India as the world's largest 'Brain Bank'. Despite initial political resistance, offshoring to India will become a standard module of strategy presentations in global boardrooms.

That's Entertainment!

You can't travel anywhere in the world today without someone accosting you with how much they enjoyed Monsoon Wedding. Apparently, the film has touched off a veritable boom in 'wedding tourism' to India. Mira Nair's sensibilities were honed at Harvard, but a whole new generation of Indian film makers is learning to apply global production standards to their work and also to make content more universal. As a consequence, Indian actors and directors will soon barge into the consciousness of audiences, not just in the traditional markets, but all over the world. The government will soon realise that Indian media is an underutilised weapon of global influence!

These are only a few glimpses of a new, competent and assertive India. These are only some of the reasons why I am proud of India today, and even prouder of India's future. There are only two discordant notes. The first is that a lot of us seem to have trouble believing that a virtuous scenario could indeed unfold in our country. Cocktail parties still harbour tribes of sceptics who perpetuate the ancient Indian practice of adducing evidence for why things will not improve. A recent Deutsche Bank report on Indian manufacturing disturbingly claimed that the only people who didn't believe in India's new prowess in manufacturing were Indians themselves.

The second is that we don't seem to have a collective sense of urgency to make those scenarios happen more expeditiously. Perhaps I'm just middle-aged and restless, but isn't India middle-aged and shouldn't it be impatient? An economist in China used the wonderful expression that they were 'condemned to growth' given the urgent need to improve the quality of life of their people. I have no quarrel with such gallows humour if it engenders a bias for action.

It would be easy for us to pass on the guilt of inaction to our governing elite. Ironically, such finger-pointing would be more accurate in an authoritarian, centrally directed economy like China. Given our democratic, federal structure, and our slow but steadily accumulating reforms over the past 12 years, the truth is that our government can no longer prevent us from raising our ambitions, stretching our own goals, expanding our operations beyond our borders, benchmarking the best in cost and quality and then surpassing those targets. So perhaps, it's time to seize the day. Let's drive growth ourselves, not wait for it to happen.