This appears to be only the tip of the iceberg. There are a number of other IT giants who are not unlisted, like TCS and PCS for instance. A complete study will give a much different picture of the knowledge business in the country.

Seen in isolation, the market cap of the three companies would appear to be a simple function of price reflecting wealth creation. Put them together and extrapolate with the GDP figure, you have a different picture in front of you. A story that could lead you to coin `economy' as `E-conomy' if only you believe in going with the global order of the day.

The three companies in terms of their market cap were a drop in the ocean if we had compared them a year ago. Their combined market cap accounted for 0.58 per cent of the country's GDP for 1997-98. But a relook now with a comparison of their market cap with 1998-99 GDP gives a mind-boggling 7.5 per cent. Wipro and Infosys account for 5.3 per cent of GDP.

Now for the absolute numbers. GDP at current market price for 1998-99 was Rs 17,70,000 crore. The market cap of the three giants as on December 23 is Rs 1,31,929 crore. Last year around this time their market cap was a meagre Rs 7,567 crore and the GDP for 1997-98 was Rs 15,63,600 crore.

The market cap of the BSE-500 companies is around Rs 7,40,296 crore or 41.82 per cent of the 1998-99 GDP. Add the two giants, VSNL and MTNL, to the trio, the top five stake up to nine per cent of the GDP of the country.

Wipro on its own accounts for 32.6 per cent followed by Infosys at 26.41 per cent of the total top five market capitalsation.

What's more, all the five are home grown giants. And, in the case of Infosys and Wipro, they have some of the biggest companies in the world as their clients.

For the first time knowledge-driven wealth effect is showing. A promoter can seriously start building wealth for his shareholders and can become an Azim Premji, a Narayana Murthy or a Subhash Chandra.

India can say with pride that it can produce companies that the world talks about. The India Inc effect is already reflected in the ADR prices of Infosys, commanding a valuation that is twice the domestic market price.A company like Zee telefilms is growing by leaps and bounds. The structture and foundation of the company has become so strong that Subash Chandra has joined the big league of Ted Turner and Murdoch.