Washington: India's current "feel good" economic climate has begun to amaze experts outside the country. One of them senses some "animal spirits" working to make India confident of taking on any challenge and meet and beat global competition.

"What John Manyard Keynes called 'animal spirits' are infusing the Indian business culture," says Emily Parker in an article published in 'The Wall Street Journal'.

The level of confidence is extraordinary, she says.

There are still major obstacles, but what makes the current mood different is that it is not optimism - it is confidence, says the article.

Many Indian businesses are no longer afraid to take risks and compete on a global scale. This is a major departure from the past.

In 1947, to the early 1990s, the self-proclaimed "self-sufficient" nation was largely closed off to the world. Protection by the Government meant less competition and safer profits, so many businessmen feared reforms that would alter the status quo. Even after India opened its doors in the early 1990s, many were anxious that Indian industry would be demolished by foreign competition, the article says.

For an increasing number of Indian businesses today, such fears are obsolete. Over the last 10 years, some of the weaker companies couldn't take the heat, but others have proved that not only could they compete, they could win.

Foreign companies' outsourcing to India is no longer seen as exploitation, but rather as a generator of thousands of jobs per month.