Indian Large Enterprises in the Years to 2025

Still in the wake of the “India 2025” conference, organized on 12 October 2007 in Paris by the Institut des hautes études de défense nationale and the Asia 21 group (Futuribles International), Philippe Humbert’s article, co-written with Jean-Joseph Boillot, draws on his contribution to that conference with regard to the possible future of Indian large enterprises. After presenting the three ages of Indian capitalism, from Independence to the present day, the authors examine the possible development of historic or emerging large enterprises in that country. They offer, inter alia, a typology of the main Indian industrial combines, structured around three “families” (public companies, the manufacturing and consumer durables industries, and enterprises in the knowledge and service sector). They go on to depict an Indian business landscape that will have undergone profound change by 2025, by comparison with the early years of the 21st century, within which a number of large combines will most certainly have acquired front-rank international stature.