“We were eclipsed for a while, overtaken by foreigners and foreign rule for a few centuries, and this is a comeuppance that is deserved — the need for some retribution,” Kansal said.

But for the dark suits who live by price-to-earnings ratios rather than postcolonial optimism, such talk is evidence of euphoria veering on hubris. Investors shaved more than 13 percent from Tata’s market capitalization since talk of the deal began, because of fears that it was overpaying.

And many are asking if, in these heady times, Indian companies will maintain the sobriety needed to manage the difficult and nuanced process of acquiring and digesting a foreign corporation...

Excerpted from a piece in the ‘International Herald Tribune’, February 1