Mere pas maa hai. When India’s musical maestro A.R. Rahman quoted one of Bollywood’s most famous lines in his Oscar acceptance speech last year, the significance of his words was not lost on the millions of Indians watching.

Millions upon millions of leaders—perhaps even billions. That's what I see, or hope to see, in 2036.

Author and former journalist Steve Hamm recalls in a recent blog post that the North American CEO of a European information technology services company was walking around the show floor of IT firm SAP’s annual user conference in Orlando, US last year and checking in at the various booths.

Editor's note: You can follow Vineet Nayar on twitter at @vineetnayar.