India as a business destination

The much-known Goldman Sachs BRICs report has predicted that India will become the third largest economy in the world, after China and the USA, by the year 2050.

Spread over 3 million square kilometres and located entirely in the northern hemisphere, India is the seventh largest country in the world in terms of geographical size.

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Indian society is multifarious owing to its cultural and religious diversity. It has undergone a marked change under the influence of rising global integration and exposure. Western customs and life-styles have largely impacted the people.

Extensive economic reforms that started in 1991 have included the delicensing of most industries, deregulation of industries earlier dominated by the public sector, liberalisation of foreign trade through a steady reduction in tariffs, and freeing up of the foreign investment limits in nearly all industries combined with an active wooing of FDI into the country. These steps have had wide ramification, converting India into a strong, vibrant and fast-growing economy, which is rapidly integrating with the global economy.

Besides the rapid economic growth, there has been constant macroeconomic stability taking into account other parameters such as foreign exchange reserves, exchange rates, inflation and interest rates. The country's foreign currency reserves, excluding gold and SDRs, rose from $51 billion at end-March 2002 to $131 billion on December 30, 2005. The main factors behind this reserve accretion are the country's flourishing services exports and strong capital inflows comprising FDI and foreign portfolio investments by FIIs.

The much-known Goldman Sachs BRICs report has predicted that India will become the third largest economy in the world, after China and the USA, by the year 2050, surpassing all other developed economies.

(Courtesy: ibef.org)