Going public is the inflection point for most entrepreneurs and companies. While there are notable exceptions, the public listing of an enterprise is what allows it to get the capital, goodwill, managerial talent and prudential oversight necessary to become great. As importantly, public listings are what allow society at large to share in the success of the company. This fulfils its social obligation of fostering greater public participation in the economy, and ensures that commerce is encompassing and not extractive.

After wading through data on hundreds of private firms, here are five that we would love to see go public. Listing these firms, we believe, would give them a market capitalisation of $1 billion (Rs 4,100 crore) each, plus the leverage to achieve their vertiginous growth targets.

Sankalpan Infrastructure
Within a decade of its inception, Sankalpan has emerged as one of India's fastest growing integrated realty and infrastructure service providers. The company provides end-to-end services to real estate companies — ranging from acquiring land for clients, to dealing with arcane regulations, creating project plans, architecting, construction, interior design, and finally delivering the finished building to the customer.

So far, Mumbai-based Sankalpan has executed more than 600 projects worth $200 million (Rs 820 crore). This year, it has already booked projects worth Rs 90 crore — remarkable growth for a company whose revenues in 2004-05 were Rs 4.5 crore.

If listed, Sankalpan could command a market capitalisation of about Rs 1,000 crore. Given its long-term plans, this figure could quadruple and the company scrip could become a real estate bell weather. Founder Ninad Randive is building up anticipation for the move. “We may go public sometime in 2009-10,” he says.