Some interesting factoids were thrown up in a session which saw three pre-eminent personages dissect capital markets. For instance, India's market capitalisation is now in excess of half a trillion dollars, pegging it at the very top in market size in the Asian region, barring Japan.

It also has the largest number of listed companies in comparison to any other market in the world. The National Stock Exchange has emerged as the third largest stock market in the world, just behind the top-ranked NYSE followed by the Nasdaq. In terms of the number of transactions conducted, the NSE is ranked at the top worldwide.

These and other interesting facts emerged at the "Entering the Fortune 500: How do Indian companies go global?" session at the ongoing Hindustan Times Leadership Summit here on Tuesday.

The session was attended by a crosssection of industry and leading lights of the political and administrative world. SEBI chairman M. Damodaran, head of Nasdaq International Charlotte Crosswell, and NSE managing director and CEO Ravi Narain addressed the session.

Stating that India has more than 125 companies who are US GAAP compliant, Crosswell said the Indian markets currently had foreign investment of over $ 35 billion. “Companies from economies like India are on the investment radar of investors worldwide chasing new growth opportunities. The action is here, in the economies of Asia. While the China story has been told and needs no repetition, much is happening in India. In terms of m-cap, India now stands at around $510 billion and has overtaken both Korea and Taiwan,” Crosswell said.

Stressing the growing maturity of the Indian markets, SEBI chief Damodaran said that more money was coming to the Indian markets. “We are seeing a large number of FIIs in the market, around 800 at the moment. Of this, 150 have come in the last 10 months,” he said.

Damodaran added that India had now become a destination for foreign capital on account of a number of factors including the fact that the Indian market was well regulated. “The Indian story has not been told well enough. We need to communicate to the world that our markets are well regulated and have high transactional efficiencies,” he added.