In February 2006, Dr. Reddys announced acquisition of Betapharm for $ 572 mn. During March 2006, Ranbaxy made encore by announcing a couple of major acquisitions in Europe. These amply demonstrate the growing confidence of Indian companies towards the process of becoming MNCs. With each passing day, the trend is gaining momentum. Today, it is not limited to pharma alone; companies in IT, Automotive Components, consumer durable and others have also joined the bandwagon with a vengeance. A desire for accessing global markets, leveraging low cost advantage to the skills availability in R&D has been behind these vaulting ambitions. However, since MNC drive is still relatively new in India, the article explores the trend along with the challenges the companies face which range from management bandwidth, financial resources to compliance with the regulatory norms.

The vision statement of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) reads "To be among the global top 10 by 2010". In fact, TCS is not alone, it is an ambition held by many corporate companies today. Think of Reliance, Infosys, WIPRO, Ranbaxy, Dr. Reddy's and scores of other corporates. All of them have audacious growth targets of making global footprints.

The process of Corporate India moving towards becoming a multinational has begun. There was a time when a section of the corporate society criticized the government for embarking on the path of liberalization. Today such is the enthusiasm in the corporate world that companies are gearing up to challenge foreign multinationals in their own territory. Soon Indian multinationals will be a common word in business literature.

The recent acquisitions by Indian companies reflect that they have not only forayed into fields like pharma, agri-foods, consumer durable, but also into steel and IT. And their acquisitions span all continents. Further, the deal value too shows an ever increasing trend.India Inc., has been in the news for its overseas deals (See Figure 1), more so for the past two years. Such has been the growth of international acquisitions, that it now seems a common phenomenon. Over the past few years, the numbers as well as the value of overseas transactions has been increasing at a rapid pace. While the number of overseas acquisitions increased by almost 67% from 2004 to 2005, in value terms, the increase was about 40%.

Global CEO Magazine, Indian Companies, Multinational Companies, MNCs, Global Markets, Financial Resources, Liberalization, Corporate Societies, Indian Multinationals, Foreign Multinationals, IT-Enabled Services Sector, Pharmaceutical Companies, International Acquisitions, Emerging Markets, International Markets.