Purpose: In this era of globalization, knowledge has emerged as a critical resource. India has high expectations from her knowledge industries. Though it is difficult to classify knowledge into watertight compartments, this paper is an attempt to study whether Indian firms have identified the most crucial knowledge and what is the importance they give to various types of knowledge. Design/methodology/approach: This study is comprehensive as it takes into account both macro and micro aspects as well as covers both private (software and pharmaceutical) and public (petroleum marketing) sectors of Indian economy. Findings: The results reveal that knowledge about customers is given the most importance and firms need to put serious effort into identifying the most crucial knowledge and then leveraging that knowledge for sustainable competitive advantage. Originality/value: This paper represents the first of its kind in an Indian context.