hat significance could India hold for a company that operates in 70 countries and has a turnover of $1.8 billion? A lot, says its chief executive, given that India is one of the key emerging economies in Asia, next only to China, with skilled manpower and resources that anyone could kill for.

For those wondering what is at the heart of the discussion, the allusion here is to research major TNS, whose chief executive Mike Kirkham was in India in mid-October for a crucial board meeting in Hyderabad. "I think it is a very unusual event for a company quoted on the London Stock Exchange to have a board meeting here in India; to have the entire board of directors, in other words, in the country," he said. ... more