He said that such an environment was conducive to the growth of virtual organisations and supply chains. These entities will power the growth of mass customisation which will at once be personalised and optimised for the end-user, he underlined. While it presents global opportunities for organisations, it will to a large extent depend on how responsive and agile a company is to existing realities, he added.

The key driver in such a world, Subramaniam said, will be information. That, he underlined, would be the key asset to the growth of any organisation in the future unlike in earlier times when wealth and power were a function of physical assets owned.

However, such structures present unique problems, he said. For instance, when it comes to issues relating to taxes, there are no clear cut laws or mechanisms in place. Primarily, Subramaniam said, tax laws in such an environment will have to be based on detailed negotiations.

Responding to a query on how taxes could be determined in the case of intangibles sold across the Internet, for instance, a piece of software that could be transferred online from one computer to another, he said a lot of debate will have to go into it. Taxes had to be neutral and equitable, he added. Most important, he said, caveats will have to be built into future systems such that tax payers in similar situations anywhere in the world will be taxed along similar lines. Therefore, he said, business houses will have to make decisions motivated by e-commerce and not tax considerations.