Replying to a barrage of questions at the open interview organised by the International Book Service and the Poona Management Service, Dr Piramal pointed out that the current business empires would remain intact but would not would not be as dominant. ``Issues like Godrej selling out of P & G and the number of years they have lost in rebuilding their brands is a critical factor,'' she felt. The well-known author who has been in the limelight for projecting eight top industrialists in her book `Business Maharajas', was in her element as she hit out against hue and cry made by all against Swadeshi. ``The whole issue is meaningless jargon.

Everybody seems to be paranoid about this issue. Swadeshi according to me is the entrepreneur going out and conquering the markets outside,'' she said.

While agreeing that political patronage may have helped some industrialists to thrive, she also believed that it was ultimately the quality of the products that mattered. She cited the example of Dhirubhai Ambani who had succeeded in setting up one of the largest business empires in the country.In reply to a query on the kind of role models the eight industrialists featured in the book would make, Piramal was emphatic, ``Do not make them your role models. If you should have a role model, ideally it should be G D Birla, Hirachand Walchand or J R D Tata, who had made things happen in a generation when neither was technology available nor any financial institution willing to back these entrepreneurs, she argued. ``It is the attitude that matters,'' the author said revealing that she had received about 400 letters from students who had expressed their desire to emulate the top industrialists, which in itself was a very satisfying feeling.