central government) in India made little effort to provide finance or specialized R&D to the industry. This was mainly because the firms, engaged mostly in customized software development and software services, had developed the technology on their own and did not need state intervention in this area. They also had access to finance from their promoters' equity, and the banks were willing to provide them with working capital. The state did not need to provide subsidized finance as they were earning huge profits and had access to finance from the banks at market rates.
This research shows that regions retain their relevance even in modern knowledge-based economies where, as scholars have argued, regional and national boundaries have largely become irrelevant due to the increasingly globalized flows of capital, information, technologies, and people. In knowledge-based industries such as software, firms increasingly operate across national boundaries and aim at the global market for their products and services. However, even with increasing globalization of capital, information, and flows of people, firms do not spread out their operation homogeneously across the world. Developing regions still have their relevance in these global networks, where appropriate development strategies can attract firms that hope to take advantage of local resources and capabilities.