Only half a century after the end of colonial rule, Indian companies are coming to Europe to build empiresof their own. Mittal led the way with the takeover of Arcelor in 2006. After five years of terrific growth, as outsourcing went global, mightIndia's IT services companies leadthe next wave of consolidation?

That hope looks premature. In terms of market capitalisation, the big Indian trio - Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro - are far larger than their European rivals. But this is thanks to valuations of 3-4 times sales, which reflect high levels of profitability, and top lines that are expanding by about 30 per centa year. The actual businesses are still much smaller. All three will have sales of about €3bn-€3.5bn this year compared with Cap Gemini's €8.8bn.