Why Has India Failed To Create Next Gen Business Icons?

#5 Nothing Like the First Wave

In the 1990s, when India freed up its economy, the first generation entrepreneurs emerged in India such as Murthy and Nandan Nilekani—the co-founders of Infosys—from the middle-class to thrive for success. Most of these first generation business icons used their educational backgrounds and grand vision to script their success. They came up with their own norms of governance as there were less government controls.

These first generation entrepreneurs, from K V Kamath to Deepak Parekh, Sunil Mittal to Murthy, led their companies and adopted values and high ethical standards that were the back-bone of the Indian middle-class. Almost all of them flourished in some sunrise sectors like telecom and IT industries, which didn’t have much competition from contemporary players and were almost free from government controls.

Thus, these first generation business stars, focusing on novel sectors, played ethical yet ambitious games and turned wealthy; and yet retained the middle-class ethos.