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For most of its history since independence, India had an almost socialist approach to business. The government carried out many functions itself and regulated the rest. It was recipe for stagnation.

Beginning in the early 1990s that began to change. Government regulations loosened. Some functions were privatized. Regulations on investment were eased. At the same time, the first wave of outsourcing to India and the Dot Com Boom opened up India to the West and vice versa.

When I was in India in 2000, there was an electric sense of emerging possibilities and power. The waves of development and emergence have continued.

This month, several major publications have articles on the current business climate in India. Here are pointers to some of the best.

The Economist has the most comprehensive coverage, with one of their always-excellent Special Reports. Here's the lead.

"EARLY next year, perhaps in April, India’s coalition government will face the judgment of 700m voters. Being mostly poor, they will not be happy. Recent months, moreover, have brought particular hardships: high inflation, a patchy monsoon, a slowing economy and vanishing jobs. In a worrying time, the terrorist attacks in Mumbai on November 26th-29th came as a particularly harsh blow. They gave the world images of India that jarred with the shining message of its recent progress. For three days India’s most cosmopolitan city and aspirant international financial centre echoed with gunfire. Amid the slaughter wrought by just ten well-organised assassins many individual Indians acted heroically. Yet the institutional response, as so often, was poor. Properly trained troops took over nine hours to arrive at the scene. Most of the 170-plus victims died during that time."

Since we're only weeks away from the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, there's probably a bit too much attention paid to security. Workforce Management trumpeted that Mumbai was the "second most dangerous" outsourcing location. In case you're wondering, Jerusalem was the first.

You can about the "State of India's Economy" in an excellent report from the Far Eastern Economic Review. And get an American perspective in Industry Week's December issue.