MELISSA BLOCK, Host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.
ROBERT SIEGEL, Host:
NPR's Adam Davidson has the story.
ADAM DAVIDSON: The idea of one of the best-known British brands being bought by a company from the old colonies is pretty shocking to a lot of people including Arvind Subramanian.
ARVIND SUBRAMANIAN: This is not how it's meant to happen - English workers working for Indian managers and Indian entrepreneurs.
DAVIDSON: Subramanian is senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He's also from India, and he says that for centuries, there have been some really clear guidelines in place over how rich countries and poor countries in interact.
SUBRAMANIAN: So there's a very clear allocation of who can and should do what in this global game of capitalism. You know, the rich country provides technology, entrepreneurship, management, you know, how to run a business.
DAVIDSON: Right. So, Ford in the U.S. or Jaguar in the U.K. will be the expert on how to run a business and India, well, India is a poor country so by the standard rules...
SUBRAMANIAN: What poor countries have to offer is either cheap resources or cheap labor.
DAVIDSON: But of course, in the case of an Indian company buying Jaguar...
SUBRAMANIAN: Almost exactly the opposite is happening. Tata, in this case, they're saying, we will tell you how to run the business and you know, the labor is going to be provided in England with Englishmen working for the company.
DAVIDSON: Subramanian expects Indian firms to continue buying big U.S. and U.K. companies. Seema Desai, an Asian analyst at the Eurasia Group, says Americans won't get used to India's emergence any time soon.
SEEMA DESAI: I think that's going to be a long time to come because China has been doing this for some time and it still get a huge amount of attention in the international press.
DAVIDSON: Adam Davidson, NPR News.