Zaheer Sitabkhan, co-manager at Eaton Vance Greater India Fund in Hong Kong, said, "The best-managed companies in the emerging markets can be found in India. For bottom-up stock pickers, no emerging market in the world can offer better stocks."

According to Frank G Zarb, chairman and CEO of Nasdaq, "The addition of Infosys to Nasdaq will provide investors with a new opportunity to participate in the evolution of a global information technologies industry."A few, however, are not so enthused. According to Kunal Kapoor, international analyst atMorningstar, "Emerging market funds overall fell by two per cent in January 1999. While figures for February are not available, it's likely that these funds are down even more, largely because of problems in Brazil." It may be recalled that emerging market funds started feeling the pinch when the Asian currency crisis unfolded in mid-1997. The average open-ended emerging markets fund lost about 27 per cent in 1998.

What may emerge for forthcoming Indian IPOs is a little early to speculate. Fund managers believe that most individual investors would be better off buying a diversified Asia fund. ``A single country fund is only for the most aggressive investors and should not be a large part of a portfolio,'' they add. Overall, it they feel that the outlook for emerging markets in 1999 could be cloudy.