When Samir Puri accepted an invitation from the German business community to attend the Asia-Pacific Conference (APC) in New Delhi in October, he was not only amazed at the acute shortage of beer at the evening reception. Even more remarkable for him were the geopolitical and economic implications of the meeting between Germany and the host country. The representatives of the world’s third-largest economy were faced with an India whose Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has openly stated his goal of soon moving up to this very position and who met Germany on an equal footing.