The industry certainly has the potential. But performance varies from company to company and depends on their level of commitment. The portion of the pie the country should get must be substantially and more than what it is today. We must focus on value-added services, creating intellectual properties and licensing them, products,different segments of the market and of course, the internet revolution and participation in internet-related services. The combination of all these is very important to get to a higher order of value proposition and service.

If you look at individual companies, the same growth may not be possible because of their size. But if you take smaller companies, sustained growth is certainly possible for the next couple of years till they reach a critical mass after which they can grow at a slower pace. All shapes and sizes of companies have to participate in this vision. Each one will grow at different rates, but the overall growth of the industry is what we are looking at -- that has to be sustained at 50 per cent.

Software stocks have been overhyped and overvalued because of a number of reasons. Firstly, the market itself was depressed in comparison with other stocks and industries. Secondly, the number of good shares available was very restricted. There was also no clear understanding of what the software business was all about. Lack of awareness can lead to a mad rush or mad valuations. Because of all these reasons, the stocks were going through the roof. They now have to find their right place and corrections will happen. When that happens is yet to be seen.

Potential has to translate into reality at some stage. If the potential stays as potential, somebody is going to say let's look at reality. Valuation cannot be for the industry as a whole. It has to be based on companies, their strategies, actual realities. The models of evaluation will be much more refined as wego along. And that is good for the companies and the industry. We don't want to be overvalued.

The Euro has a completely different set of challenges it is not like Y2K which had to be done by the next year. The size of the market will not be as big, but certainly there is an opportunity.

We created a software factory where all the hardware, infrastructure, methodology, quality and project management came from TCS. We took a number of business associates through companies (around 700 people from 30 companies) which wanted to build capabilities by participating in this at our factory and trained them. At the end of the day, nobody wants to lose a trained resource. We will find ways to co-operate or collaborate with them. It was successful as a concept-- so that model will certainly be used by TCS whether it is for the Euro or anything else.

Money is not a problem. We are not closed to anything. In technology, things sometimes change almost in a few days. You must be flexible enough to look at an opportunity instead of saying don't even come to me for the next two years.

Acquisition is a route, no doubt. But it is not easy. The reason for acquisition must be very clear: whether you are acquiring for technology, geography or market share. It cannot be at the cost of sacrificing profitability. You may grow on your bottomline but if profits have gone down then it doesn't make sense. We will certainly look at acquisitions as a means to grow, but we are not saying we definitely have to acquire to grow. Every company must have its own strategy.