1999: India Inc on Wall Street

Back in 1999, Infosys Technologies had revenues of just $100 million and employed about 3,700 people. In March that year, it became the first Indian company to be listed on an American stock exchange when it debuted on the Nasdaq, under the symbol INFY. Infosys raised $70.38 million through the sale of 2.07 million American Depository Shares (ADS). This set the pace for listings by other Indian companies on American exchanges. Rediff.com followed INFY on the Nasdaq. Over the next two years, more than half a dozen Indian companies such as Silverline Technologies, ICICI Bank, VSNL, Wipro, Dr. Reddy's, Satyam and HDFC listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The Indian honeymoon with Wall Street had just begun. In 2006, Infosys became the first company to figure in the Nasdaq-100 Index, where it sits alongside the likes of Dell, Microsoft, and Intel. There have been setbacks, though. After the Satyam scandal, Satyam's new management delisted the company from the NYSE.
 
The Telecom Map
The New Telecom Policy 1999 laid out a clear road map, opening up national long distance and international long distance telephony to the private sector. It also corporatised the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), among other things. It allowed the existing players to shift from a fixed fee regime to one of revenue sharing. The policy also set a very modest target of achieving a teledensity of 15 per cent by 2010. India's teledensity as of September 2010 was 61 per cent.

Insurance opened up
In 1994, a committee headed by R.N. Malhotra, former Governor of Reserve Bank of India, had recommended that the insurance sector be opened up for private players and foreign players with some restrictions. The report gathered dust for five years till the government moved in to set up the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) in 1999. In 2000, IRDA opened up the sector. Foreign companies were allowed, too, but with a 26 per cent stake cap. Today, there are 23 insurers in the life insurance segment and 24 in the general insurance segment.

Did you know?
The Sensex crossed 5,000 points for the fi rst time, on October 8, 1999, as the BJP-led coalition won the 13th Lok Sabha elections.

Quote of the year Our decline was because the customer changed, the world changed - and we did not realise this. By the time we did, in 1995, it was too late. Rajiv Bajaj, on Bajaj Auto's struggle in the face of increasing competition