Infosys Technologies [Get Quote] co-founder and president Nandan Nilekani is 52. Sunil Mittal, CEO of Bharti Enterprises, turns 50 this year. Naresh Goyal of Jet Airways [Get Quote] is in his late fifties. So is Subhash Chandra of Zee Entertainment.

Not many moons ago, Narayana Murthi stepped over to the wiser side of 60. There is something curious about this generation of corporate leaders which sets them apart from the rest. It's the role they have played as leaders of disruptive change.

Some attribute their making to the liberalisation of the economy, but it is as easy an assumption as crediting the bathwater with the making of Archimedes. It is one thing to lead a phenomenon, quite another to challenge and alter the status quo.

Disenchantment was a big factor that helped shaped this generation. Turbulence was another - tectonic shifts in the old belief system marked the formative years of this generation. For many, the infamous Emergency of 1975-77 proved to be a major inflection point.

Bajaj Electricals [Get Quote] executive director R Ramakrishnan, who was 16 at the time, says that one's faith in public service, that it provides an opportunity for nation-building, suffered a big blow during the Emergency.

This one, too, like most curses, proved a boon in disguise because the best and the bravest of the time, took it upon themselves to create new vistas of growth - with or without - popular support.

US marketers have a name for the generation born between 1946 and 1964. They call them baby boomers or simply, the boomers. Tamara J Erickson, a Mckinsey Award-winning author and a fascinating storyteller, in one of her Harvard Business Publishing blogs, voices her fear that "(the American) corporations are likely headed for some rocky times ahead".

The handover of leadership to GenXers - folks in their 30s and 40s - is going to be a big challenge in the coming years, she points out. The magnitude of deviation implies that this is not just your proverbial generation gap.

Most strikingly, many of her concerns stem from the same factors that also exist in this part of the world. For instance, factors that influence motivation, self-reliance and trust in large institutions.

What this also means is that there still is a great deal of work left for the Indian pioneers - - the biggest being the handover of charge to the leaders of tomorrow.