India is fastly emerging as the hottest investment hub for NRI's.
The country is the 10th largest economy in the world and the 4th largest
in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP). India has a massive pool
of skilled labour which is internationally cost-competitive, a large
entrepreneurial base and an expanded manufacturing sector, which make
it a lucrative destination for partnership, resulting in easy collaborations.
The country has a very strong scientific and technical manpower, which
is around 20 million; surprisingly the figure surpasses the population
of Taiwan. The number of literates in India is more than the combined
population of France and Japan. The country has a huge domestic market
with a 300 million-strong middle class population with substantial purchasing
power and another 700 million-strong population whose capacity to purchase
is steadily increasing. Being a vibrant democracy with a large democratic
set-up supplemented by a broad-based legal framework including arbitration
and an independent judicial system, it boasts of a vast network of bank
branches, financial institutions and well-organized capital and money
markets. All these features make the country and attractive destination
for NRI investment.
Also to motion is the mammoth network of technical and management institutions
of the highest international standard for development of excellent human
resources. India has an enviable record of honouring its international
financial obligations and has never defaulted. The country has a strong
English language base for business purposes. The strong and vibrant
small-scale sector is good enough for establishing strategic alliances
with its foreign counterparts. The strategic location of the country
in the context of the third world markets particularly the rapidly growing
South and South-East Asian markets together with a supportive infrastructure
base help in promoting a healthy environment for NRI inflows into the
country.
According to recent prediction of the World Bank Report Indian economy
is expected to become one of the world's largest by 2050 A.D. What started
as a slow uprising in the 1980's is now fastly emerging like a torrent.
India's economy is on the bull run of an ever-increasing growth. With
positive indicators such as a stable 8-9 percent annual growth, rising
foreign ex-change reserves of close to USD 180 billion, a booming capital
market with the popular "Sensex" topping the majestic 20000
mark, the Government of India (GoI) has estimated an FDI inflow of USD
12 billion during this fiscal and a 35 percent plus upward growth in
exports.
It is easy to understand why India is one of the top destinations for
foreign investment. The Indian economy has grown by 8.9 percent during
the first quarter of '06-07, which is the highest first-quarter growth
rate since 2000-01. In this period, the manufacturing sector grew by
a high 11.3 percent and agriculture, which constitutes nearly a quarter
of the GDP, grew by a robust 3.4 percent. Trade, hotel, transport and
communication sectors grew by 9.5 percent and construction grew by 13.2
percent.
In the corresponding period of last fiscal, these sectors grew by 11.7
percent and 12.4 percent, respectively. Electricity grew by 5.4 percent
in the first quarter as against 7.4 percent in the same period last
year. The overall growth in this sector was fuelled by growth in July
and August. The service sector also grew by 10.6 percent in the first
quarter of '06-07 as against 9.8 percent last year for the same quarter.
There has been an outstanding growth in some important industries of
the Indian economy, like commercial vehicles (36 percent), telephone
connections (48.9 percent) and passenger growth in civil aviation (32.2
percent).
