The astute international manager that he is, Dutta has a nose for great bargains. He sources marine products from Maldives (naturally!), dairy products from New Zealand, fresh fruits (mostly of Indian origin) from Dubai and match-boxes all the way from China. Maldives is just 500 kms from Trivandrum and very much a part of Saarc, an India-dominated commercial grouping but Indian products are hard to find in this country.

Just about theonly Indian brand that holds its own in Maldivian supermarkets is the ayurvedic range "Biotique". The company behind this internationally accepted personal product is not listed on any Indian or foreign stock exchange nor does it figure in the borrower list of banks and institutions. In simple terms, it is not a guzzler of scarce capital like the bigger and politically-connected business groups of India. I don't think the owners of "Biotique" have ever lobbied for protection from MNCs or sought any kind of preferential treatment from the government. On the contrary, the brand fights a continuous battle with global products in foreign markets without whining about high PLR or reduced governmental expenditure.

India needs scores of Biotiques and less of mega projects. If anything, these mega projects only seek to make the promoters mega in terms of networth. About 20 per cent of IDBI's networth is exposed towards one such mega group which has never distinguished itself in the area of investor rewards. Amonth ago, the IDBI chairman swore to "support" such capital-consuming enterprises using the swadeshi plank. I would like to remind Khan that the billions he is mobilising from you and me through variations of the deep discount bond is not easy money to be misused for selective patronage of discredited industrial groups whose current stock values reflect public condemnation of their management ethics.

In any part of the world, there are essentially two kinds of entrepreneurs. One believes in enriching himself at the expense of the shareholder (India has a brute majority of this type) whereas the other gives his all for shareholder wealth creation. I know of some Infosys shareholders who have prematurely quit their boring jobs on the back of the incredible capital gains that they have achieved in the last seven years. In fact, I met one of these lucky gentlemen in Maldives. In his early thirties, he is looking ahead to a lifetime of snorkelling, scuba-diving and surfing. "No more of nine to seven for anIndian babu", he hissed under his breath.

The Indian babu is now an endangered species. Wipro's market capitalisation is bigger than four major babu groups put together. Wipro's leading lights, Premji and Soota, don't possess private aircrafts. Nor do they live in four-turreted castles fitted out with close-circuit TV cameras. They pay their bills on time, don't seek political intervention to reschedule their debt and conduct themselves like mere mortals. Premji's stock in Wipro is valued at over Rs 300 crore. That is because he has chosen the value creation route rather than the salting away to Zurich/Geneva option.

Like all endangered species, Indian babus are wallowing for protection. They want to be moll-coddled. Like they have been for 43 of our 50 independent years. How else does one explain the survival of history pieces like Hindustan Motors? Recently, CK Birla remarked that "Indian investors have a mindset problem with domestic companies." I can fully understand Birla's sense of misery but Idon't empathise with him. Such misery is brought about by total neglect of shareholder aspirations. The makers of Premier cars must be feeling the same, if not worse. Both these groups had 40 years to produce world-class products with all the politically-directed capital at their disposal but they simply made a mess of it. Hundreds of like-minded babus who have ruthlessly dominated the Indian business landscape by cornering all possible favours and public capital are now threatened with the emergence of techno-managers like Premji, Soota, Narayan Moorthy and others who are likely to bag more market capitalisation in the years ahead than all faceless commodity-type companies that the babus excelled in setting up.

It is unfortunate that the likes of Khan (IDBI) are still obsessed with bricks and mortar which look "weightier" as security on the lenders' books than intellectual capital. Even the business press continues to put the likes of Chhabria on their covers rather than go into the minds of our techfolk.Manohar Joshi's closed door dinner meeting with two notorious capital guzzlers that is Harsh Goenka of RPG and Vinod Mittal of Ispat merits more attention from our fourth estate than the technological breakthroughs that Infosys or TCS achieve regularly. Capital creators are yet to be recognised by the traditional business establishment of India, be it the trade bodies, regulators or the press. Which is indeed a shame.

Warren Buffet has never touched a capital guzzler in his 40 odd years of incredible stock-picking. But Indian fund managers don't feel comfortable till they overweight their portfolios with obscenely capitalised commodity companies.

If you want to ride into the next millennium on the back of a raging bull, these low-debt companies constitute your best bet. Otherwise, you would be riding into the sunset on the back of a tired and discredited bull whose obsession with assets on the ground makes him a sitting target for a spirited matador.