Banking on India

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That confidence may come in handy in the next few months. The U.S.'s subprime woes will have little effect on Indian investors, who have largely avoided leveraged buyouts, unlike their U.S. counterparts, who have been relying on the now shaky credit markets to finance those deals. But if global credit markets tighten, "India won't be immune," says Ernst & Young financial-services analyst Ashvin Parekh. Foreign investors sank $98 billion into India from 2003 to 2006, according to Morgan Stanley, and every major investment bank in the world is chasing that business. Less free-flowing credit will inevitably lead to Indian companies' eyeing fewer deals and therefore to even more competition for their business. In India, commissions and fees are often less than a quarter of what they are in the West, so if foreign banks want to make money, says Alok Aggrawal, chairman of market watcher Evalueserve, they will have to go after the biggest, most profitable deals. "That's a small pool with a lot of sharks."

Such talk will hardly dampen Entwistle's plans. He's adding personnel rapidly, sometimes an employee a day. Goldman Sachs has also built relationships with Indian universities and M.B.A. programs in an effort to nourish the Goldman culture in India from the ground up. The bank plans to hire most of its India staff locally within the next few years. Previously, the only way to recruit India's top students was by offering them the chance to go abroad. "Now they don't want to miss out on what's going on at home," Entwistle says, "and we can finally offer it to them."

Not that Entwistle doesn't have grand ambitions for the team he already has. Beyond more blockbuster deals, he wants to field a group of runners in Mumbai's annual marathon next January. "Participation isn't mandatory," he says, "but I think I can convince most people to join." You'll find him at the head of the Goldman pack.