In Dickensian prose, it was the best of times. it was the worst of times. "It" being the deliriously manic period between 1995 and 2000, the period that changed the world in more ways than many might want to credit it for. Ordinary people dreamed the impossible; impatient with the old order, a new lexicon of dotcoms and dotcommers, emerged; "e" and "i" became popular prefixes; and investors placed huge bets on unproven and unknown businesses. While traditional businesses were being shaken up, instant millionaires were being mined in real time, and hundreds of millions were thrust into the digital age. It also saw the emergence of greed on an unprecedented scale, the death of rationality, caution and, in many cases, governance. Tacky hyperbole-filled soundbites masqueraded as understated wisdom. In Churchill-speak, never before was so much achieved in so many dimensions-in technology, business models, markets, employee compensations to name a few-in such a short space of time. Over $200 billion (Rs 8,80,000 crore) was invested and over 14,500 companies were backed by investors, with an astonishing 10 companies being created every day in 2000! It was a period of unbridled excess.

Was The Excess All Worth It?

I believe that the hype, the frantic investments and the explosion of entrepreneurial energy were all worth it. Globalisation received a huge dose of steroids. The frenzy changed the way the world dealt with information. Small businesses, even individuals, realised that they could be part of the global economy. The empowering of individuals changed the equation between the consumer and the manufacturer forever. An entire generation of (especially Indian) corporate executives learnt how to type, send as well as receive e-mail. Without the frenzy, there would have been no Google, Yahoo!, eBay, Amazon and Monster. How did we ever communicate, travel, bank, search, collaborate, publish, research and buy anything before 1995?

The Indian middle class became confident, aware that the pursuit of wealth was possible, achievable, and worth it. The Indian poster boys of Silicon Valley made entrepreneurship hip. If you weren't an entrepreneur, you just had to be an investor! Senior executives from traditional businesses abandoned conmfortable jobs to become dotcom entrepreneurs. Rediff, Indiaworld, IndiaInfoline, Indiagames, Baazee and Indiabulls came into existence in the 1995-2000 era. Just like the Netscape IPO in 1995 signalled the birth of a new way of doing things in the US, the $110 million (Rs 484 crore) acquisition of Indiaworld by Sify was the signal to the educated middle class that entrepreneurship was a career option worth exploring.

Today, there are over 600 million net users in the world. The true internet revolution is beginning to happen now. Newer dotcom businesses are being launched with (far more) initial success. China is at the forefront of the charge with a surging net population. India, with about 39 million users today, has realised that the net is a great leveller. The telecom revolution and the rising number of PCs and other access devices will make the wonders of the net available to an increasing number of Indians over the next five to 10 years. That's when the true revolution will happen in India with e-governance, e-learning and e-business really coming together.

Sanjay Anandaram is Managing Director, JumpStartUp Fund Advisors. These are his personal views.