Scottish businesses should regard India's blistering growth and strict financial regulatory regime as a unique commercial opportunity - not a threat - amid the global economic mayhem, the Indian High Commissioner told The Herald yesterday.
India, which in recent years has become increasingly assertive on the world stage, is now exploiting its unusual position as a country with piles of cash and a strong banking system, at a time when many countries have neither.
And although annual economic growth on the Indian subcontinent has slowed from its rapid clip of 8.5% during 2003 and 2004 and almost 9% in 2007, the expected rate this year remains remarkable - even as the global credit crunch and the rupee's decline begins to bite.
"We expect the Indian economy to grow at between 6% and 6.5% this year," said Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, who was in Glasgow yesterday for the launch of a new Indian visa application centre.
"India is still a job-creating economy. Much of the world's economy may be in recession, but we are reasonably cushioned by our growth rate.
"I strongly recommend that Scottish companies come to India to trade. If I were in Scotland, I would look at the Indian economy as a huge opportunity."
Nonetheless, there is little doubt that the recession in most of the large economies in the world has inflicted real pain on India.
A recent report from the International Monetary Fund said that India's growth would be likely to slow to 6.25% this year on falling corporate investment and deteriorating global outlook.
The country's leading stock market index, the Sensex, has been cut in half since January as foreign investors have redirected billions of dollars out of the country.
The once-skyrocketing Indian real estate markets are also cooling off.
Mukherjee agreed that foreign investors, many of whom fuelled much of India's growth over the past few years, have become far more cautious about investing in India - but he also said that internal demand has remained strong and that huge, government-funded infrastructure projects are still going ahead.
Construction work in the country has continued unabated on new highways and rail lines, which are likely to permanently reduce transportation costs in India.
And while European and US leaders have struggled to revive lending, Mukherjee said Indian banks have hardly slowed down at all and in some quarters banks have even increased their lending to SMEs.
"Of course there is a reduction in foreign investment - the stock market has shown that - but our banking system has done better than in most other places," he said.
"Most of our banks are already nationalised and they have been told to continue lending.
"Our financial regulation also has always been tough, and we're proud of that. It has been criticised in the past for being too tough, but now it is being praised.
"So I would say there is still enormous opportunity for foreign investment - and there is certainly nothing to fear from our financial sector.
"Scotland is a world leader in commercialising academic excellence, renewable energy, engineering and so many other things.
"Businesses in Scotland should take advantage of these opportunities in India, especially now that their traditional areas for commerce in the US and Europe are struggling."
He added: "Even if demand for our goods continues to fall away in Europe and the US, our largest markets, a lot of our growth is still linked to domestic investment and we don't see our growth plummeting in any serious way."
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