Forget the India you once knew. It is gone. Instead, contemplate a new self-confident, resurgent nation, embracing its role as an emerging Asian superpower.

From Silicon Valley to Bangalore, Indians are big in global software development.

This year, India's growth rate could outstrip China's - and prove more sustainable.

There is mounting support for India to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

The country's scientists plan to launch a moon probe.

Put all this together and the surprise is not that India is gatecrashing the elite superpower league, but that this has not happened in the previous years.