India

India obtained its independence from Britain in 1947, after the resistance movements headed by Mohandas GANDHI and Jawaharlal NEHRU. The country was then separated into secular India and the smaller Muslim territory of Pakistan; the 1971 war between India and Pakistan turned East Pakistan into Bangladesh. Besides the conflict over Kashmir, India continues to have problems with overpopulation, environmental degradation, and widespread poverty.

Main Airports

Kolkata (Calcutta) (CCU) (Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International), Mumbai (BOM) (Chhatrapati Shivaji International), New Delhi (DEL) (Indira Gandhi International)

U.S. Embassy

Shantipath, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110021
tel. 91-11-2419-8000
http://newdelhi.usembassy.gov

Statistics

GDP: purchasing power parity:

$3.611 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:

7.6% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity:

3,300 (2005 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):

4.2% (2005 est.)

Labor force:

496.4 million (2005 est.)

Exports:

$76.23 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - partners:

US 18%, China 8.9%, UAE 8.4%, UK 4.7%, Hong Kong 4.2% (2005)

Imports:

$113.1 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - partners:

China 7.2%, US 6.4%, Belgium 5.1%, Singapore 4.7%, Australia 4.2%, Germany 4.2%, UK 4.1% (2005)

Population:

1,095,351,995 (July 2006 est.)

Population growth rate:

1.38% (2006 est.)

Population Below Poverty Line:

25% (2002 est.)

Major Industries:

textiles, chemicals, food processing, steel, transportation equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, software

Employing Workers: 112*

Registering Property: 110*

Enforcing Contracts: 173*

Closing a Business: 133*

*2006 World Bank rank out of 175 countries

Starting a Business

The table below shows the number of steps and the amount of time needed to start a business, on average

Indicator	India	Region
Procedures (number)	11	7.9
Time (days)	35	32.5

India Risk Assessment

Country Rating

Rating: A3

Changes in generally good but somewhat volatile political and economic environment can affect corporate payment behaviour. A basically secure business environment can nonetheless give rise to occasional difficulties for companies. Corporate default probability is quite acceptable on average.

Risk Assessment

India achieved a new record for growth, up 9.4 per cent, in the 2006/07 fiscal year. Although a very moderate slowdown has developed since, the economy has nonetheless remained strong with 8.8% growth still expected in 2007/08 and eight per cent in 2008/09. Both industry and services have been driving the growth. In these conditions, the Coface payment incident index has remained below the world average. It nonetheless continues to be very difficult to obtain financial information for mid-size companies or consolidated financial statements for groups.

Signs of overheating — a moderate deterioration of external accounts and persistent inflation — bear watching. The influx of long capital has, however, covered external financing needs. Economic growth will be sustainable since it rests on good fundamentals — high savings and investment rates, and reasonable external debt ratios. The enormous infrastructure and education needs nonetheless continue to be veritable economic bottlenecks preventing growth from reaching optimal levels. But the public sector debt service burden, still representing over one-third of fiscal revenues, has impeded the necessary public investment.
Forthcoming elections, which must take place by May 2009, could affect the pace of the reform programme, sponsored currently by a very disparate coalition of parties. The reform process seems nonetheless irreversible.

STRENGTHS

• Private Indian companies have been India's main asset, benefiting from advantages in many sectors, both services (IT, outsourcing) and industry (pharmaceuticals, textiles, and so on).
• Economic growth has been balanced, driven at once by investment, exports, and rapidly-developing middle class consumption.
• The substantial increase in the savings rate in recent years has facilitated the financing of corporate investment.
• India has moderate foreign debt and comfortable foreign exchange reserves.

• Despite some real progress, the public sector financial situation continues to be India's main weakness, with debt service draining a high proportion of fiscal revenues to the detriment of development spending.
• There are thus major shortcomings in infrastructure, which constitute India's main economic bottleneck.
• The rapid rise of private company debt will bear watching.
• Rural areas, which represent a majority of the electorate, have not benefited from current economic growth.

• Agriculture
• Apparel
• Arts & Crafts
• Automobile
• Bags, Cases & Boxes
• Chemicals
• Computer Hardware & Software
• Construction & Real Estate
• Consumer Electronics
• Electrical & Electronics
• Energy & Environment
• Food & Beverage
• Furniture & Furnishing
• Health & Medicine
• Home Supplies
• Industrial Supplies
• Lights & Lighting
• Machinery
• Mineral & Materials
• Office Supplies
• Security & Protection
• Service
• Sports & Entertainment
• Telecommunications
• Textile
• Toys
• Transportation