Nasdaq is the preferred stock exchange for high-tech companies. The Infy listing is a celebration at once of the achievements of one Indian company and of the energy, innovation and rapid growth of the whole IT industry in India. IT companies are the resounding success story of the decade having overtaken the old giants of Indian industry in terms of total market capitalisation and are still pushing ahead.

Others can be expected to follow Infy and test themselves in the wider world. The competitive spirit as much as genius will account for further gains and growth. Thosewho observe such things will note that the first Chinese company to arrive in New York, with a listing on the NSYE, was an electric power company whereas when India rode in, four years later, it was on the wave of the future. Perhaps that is a pointer to where competitive advantages lie.

The phenomenal growth of the domestic IT sector mirrors developments globally. Infosys goes to New York at a time when the stock prices of global high-tech companies are soaring beyond all expectation. Investors world-wide just cannot seem to get enough of IT stock and are rewarding new and unknown entrants as well. This is not surprising. What is called the third phase of the IT revolution is underway, new frontiers lie ahead and no one wants to be left behind when the wagons roll.

Business everywhere is trying to come to grips with the implications of advances in IT and telecom systems and the installation of an estimated 500 to 600 million personal computers all over the globe. All this adds up to what one corporatechief calls an `electronic continent' of marketing opportunities. At no other time in history companies have had the prospect of reaching millions of geographically dispersed consumers so rapidly and at such low cost.

Where once computers changed the way backroom jobs were done, today they are transforming the way commerce is carried out and even the way business organisations are shaped. According to some estimates, electronic commerce in Europe alone will be in the region of $60 billion in the next two years and probably larger in the US. Computers and Internet technologies are altering every field of human endeavour from education to defence, health to entertainment.

The challenge for IT companies will be staying ahead of the changes and even driving and giving direction to them. India has as yet touched only the fringes of the underlying possibilities. Although the software sector is surging ahead, it lacks the kind of depth and width of operations in other countries. More importantly the arresteddevelopment of the telecom sector is proving a major handicap. Much has been achieved. Much more must be done.