DCEite, you want to know this, do you?
Ok... see its like this. There are essentially two lines in the IT business. Upto now most indian IT companies were (And still are to the most extent) into what is called services. We execute the requirements from the begining till end. However the essential call is that of the customer. This is the pure bred engineering line of approach.
Indian companies are now realizing that the real cream is at the top, in the consultancy business. What the accentures and IBMs of the world are so good at. So Infy, Satyam and the likes are all now establishing their own consultancy business. This is where the consultant studies the business problem and comes up with a complete architecture to the minutest extent. They even give an execution plan, costs expected etc. This is a real big moolah earner.
The problem is this needs a lot of clout as a successful consultant. Indian companies find that they have an image problem here. While the client is happy to give an execution PO for the thing to them they are not so comfortable to let them suggest them something from grounds up. They would rather pay Delloites and Accentures to come up with a complete study and plan and then call for the bids where they will happily allow the Indian biggies to participate. Thankfully the scenario is now changing to a big extent.
The consultants are of course those who are in this consultancy business. Most of them are very very strong in technical aspects and also understand the business end of it to a good extent. High end solution architects and business analysts find a ready employment in consultancy businesses.
EDIT: To give an example, Malaysia's Multimedia Superhighway is a result of Satyam's successful consultancy efforts and then execution as well (yes, both consultancy and then even execution was won by Satyam). I think the consultancy was shared with another global consultancy, can't remember which one though.