As the Indian economy integrates globally, mergers and acquisitions (M&As) will become the norm if the country's business enterprises are to keep pace with competition at home and abroad.

This is the conclusion of a US B-school don who has studied the phenomenon for three decades.

"The most attractive returns from mergers occur where scale economies can be achieved - and that means essentially buying consolidation among peer companies. So, I expect that as this wave of transactions goes forward in India, we would see a relatively large volume of horizontal combinations where companies buy their peers," says Robert F. Bruner, dean of the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, rated second in the 2005 Financial Times survey of US business schools.

"The alternative," according to Bruner, "is vertical combinations where you buy up or down the value chain - for instance, you buy a supplier. Research shows that horizontal transactions are more profitable than vertical transactions and both of these are more profitable than conglomerate transactions where you buy very far from your core business."

Bruner is in India to explore the possibilities of the Darden School, which has an endowment of $260 million and an annual budget of $55 million, opening shop in India either through tie-ups with institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology or of the Indian Institutes of Managements, or on its own. A little over 40 Indians, the largest foreign group, are currently enrolled for MBA programmes at the 600-strong Darden School.

"You're just seeing the beginning of a very long journey in India," Bruner told in an interview. Given this, he felt there was space for an international B-school like his in a country that already has a few world-class institutions.

Pointing to the "massive breakthrough" at the just-concluded Hong Kong round of World Trade Organisation negotiations "that will liberalise international trade dramatically", Bruner contended: "Five years from now, you'll look on this as a transformational event. The big implication of this for Indian business is that the relative frame of reference for competition for them is not India, but the global arena of businesses.

"So, for Indian businesses to survive and prosper requires an appreciation of global best practices and business schools such as mine are specialists in teaching that," he added.

"We look the world over for emerging best practices and we use those insights to shape our educational programmes. By coming to India we can help sharpen the pool of talent and I would add I think we can help other institutions become better," Bruner maintained.

"International global business will be a turbulent force of change for the rest of our lives" and Indian corporates would have to gel with this to survive, he contended.

So, why should Darden focus on India when China is growing at a far more rapid rate?

"I'm told there are over 1,000 MBA programmes in India. Does India need another MBA school and why should a school like mine come here? My belief first is that an economy that is growing as rapidly as India will create a huge vacuum for talent - for administrative talent - and this makes it a specially attractive time for students to get a global MBA degree, because during periods of explosive growth, there are great opportunities, great wealth is created, and I believe India is in such a phase now. It's an exciting moment to be a teacher and an educator," he maintained.

The Darden School, he pointed out, "is the second largest developer of case studies (business models) in the US. By coming to India, we can develop a library of case studies originating from business problems set in India.

"We would establish a research centre we would hire some researchers, we would bring faculty in to supervise the researchers. We'd interview executives, business managers, and CEOs. We'd learn about the big issues in Indian business, we'd isolate those problems and make for good learning experiences," he said.

"If these teaching materials are developed and made available, this can also help other regions around the world learn about doing business in India," Bruner pointed out.