"There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures..."
—William Shakespeare

It is just past that time of the year. Forbes has come out with its annual listing of the world's richest men and women. This year, there was a pleasant surprise: A separate inventory of the world's 40 richest Indians.

This is just another proof-if proof were needed-that India and her economy are beeping 24x7 on the radars of Global Inc. It is also the culmination of a series of often disparate and unrelated events that testify to this country's emerging-and we use the word deliberately, preferring it to the more self-congratulatory growing-clout in the world.

Foreign institutional investors have invested close to $8 billion (Rs 35,200 crore) during 2004. Like all statistics, these figures hide some interesting stories. The California Public Employees' Retirement System (Calpers), the largest pension fund in the US and one of the most finicky investors in the world, has decided to set aside a portion of its emerging market funds for India.

The quantum of money allocated to the Indian market is not very large, but looking at absolute numbers would be missing the woods for the trees; juxtapose this figure with the fact that Calpers still considers China, Indonesia and Thailand-India's rivals in many other spheres-as being below investment grade, and you realise that India is beginning to score in areas that count. There are other indicators as well. For the first time in history, our economic prowess became an issue in the US elections. It may not have been the decisive factor in the 2004 polls, but it did play an important role: A fairly large and representative section of the American workforce was scared of losing jobs to tech workers in Bangalore, Hyderabad and other Indian cities! Across the Atlantic, in Ol' Blighty, the "Indian horror story" is providing as much fodder for politicians-and for this editorial. In a pre-budget report, UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown has unveiled a strategy to take on India and China. He has stated-25 times, no less-the UK government's misgivings about the "economic balance" shifting towards the Asian giants. Brown talks of the need to upgrade UK's skill levels to face the challenge posed by the two Asian giants. And to think Indian politicians are still talking of neo-colonialism and imperialism!

Nokia and LG are setting up multi-hundred-million-dollar plants to assemble cellphones in this country. Reliance, Tata, Birla, Ranbaxy, Cipla, not to speak of Infosys and Wipro, have established Indian beachheads in foreign lands. They have emerged as Indian multinationals in their own right.

Foreign-owned MNCs, likewise, have marked out their presence in India. In automobiles, for example, almost all the major brands are present in the country. Some of them, like Hyundai and Suzuki (and that great Indian flagbearer Tata Motors), are exporting large numbers of cars from India. So much so that global car carriers like NYK of Japan, National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia and Everett of the US are now regulars at the Mumbai and Chennai ports.

In the UK, Indian-American Arun Sarin has been appointed CEO of leading telco Vodafone.

Richard Branson wants a piece of the Indian skies. Foreign investors can't seem to have enough of sponsored ads issues of Indian companies. Indian oil companies are bidding for, and gaining, a foothold in the energy map of the world. Indian pharma companies are giving sleepless nights to blue-chip drug makers the world over. And countries like Thailand, New Zealand, Malaysia, Holland and Hong Kong, among others, are setting up special cells to woo Bollywood producers-and through them, high-spending Indian tourists. Suddenly, India seems to be figuring on the economic radars of almost everyone who matters, everywhere in the world.

The year 2004 may well come to be referred to as annus mirabilis, the year when the complex jigsaw of hope first showed signs of falling into place.

But for that to happen, the government must take steps to keep the momentum going. What the economy needs might well be a qualified encore.