Marauding Maharajas!

I read this article in the Economist (title borrowed) about Indian companies on an acquisition spree of multi-national firms. Some of the data in the article is really worth noting.
- 34 acquisitions announced in 2007 so far worth $10.7B
- In 2006 this was at a staggering $23B
- The 2006 number was more money than the foreign companies put into India
- Some of the acquisitions are really impressive:
Hindalco acquired Novelis for $6B creating the biggest alluminium rolling company
Tata Steel acquired Corus for $13.2B
Ranbaxy has already acquired 8 companies and just recently was eyeing Merck
(The Mittal Steel acquisition of Arcelor at $32.2B doesn't count as Mittal Steel is Europe based)

For the chart junkies here's a graph on how Indian companies have made an impressive growth in acquiring multi-national companies.

*Source: The Economist March 29th, 2007