Fifteen years ago, when we launched Business Today, India was a very different country. A balance of payments crisis had just forced India to commit itself to structural reforms, the Bombay Stock Exchange index, Sensex, was wallowing at 1,193 or so (April 1), and the rupee had taken a dive to Rs 26 to a dollar on July 3, 1991 from Rs 18 just six months ago. The economy, on a decline since 1989, was all of $254-billion-big and largely driven by agriculture and industry. It didn't seem like the perfect time to launch a business magazine, India's third, but we did just the same. Happily for me, I've never had an occasion to regret the decision.

The India that you and I live in today couldn't be any more different from the dark days of the early 90s. The economy is on a roll, having clocked a 9.1 per cent rate in the first half of this financial year. Record money is pouring into both our stock markets and industry. Beating everyone's wildest expectations, India has emerged as a global outsourcing destination not just for software and back office work, but also manufacturing. Not surprisingly, an impressive $4.4 billion has flowed into India in foreign direct investment in the first half of this fiscal; this is in addition to the more than $7 billion that foreign institutional investors, who have pushed the Sensex to close to 14,000 points, have invested in Indian stock markets so far this year. Indeed, no one could have imagined that India would produce 23 billionaires, led by Arcelor-Mittal's Lakshmi Niwas Mittal (rank: #5), on Forbes' global rich list.

But being a country of more than a billion people, India hasn't benefited equally from the reforms. There are more than 380 million people in the country who earn less than $1 a day; adult literacy rate at 61 per cent is below that of a country like Rwanda (64.9 per cent); about 150 million people don't have access to proper drinking water; and almost half the children below five years of age are underweight. India will need massive investments in schools, healthcare, and sanitation if it has to keep the divides between the rich and the poor, and the literate and the illiterate, among others, from tearing the country's social fabric. The country will also need billions of dollars in physical infrastructure investment to allow industry to become even more competitive.

It is evident that the government doesn't have the wherewithal or even the expertise to effect such a formidable change. The answer is, then, more reforms. In sectors where the government cannot abdicate its responsibilities-primary education and healthcare, for instance-it must devise means to encourage private sector participation, by allowing participants to earn an appropriate return on their investment. Let us not forget that the big reason why outsourcing became India's growth engine is the availability of skilled and relatively cheap labour. If the boom has to continue, then the millions of Indians who are currently barely literate must be made employable.

The next 15 years are going to be vastly more exciting and that's what this special issue is dedicated to. My own take is that you ain't seen anything yet. Keep reading Business Today to find out. Meanwhile, wish you a great year ahead.

AROON PURIE