Overseas money in the form of investments and export sales will drive further growth in the Indian economy in 2011, according to Atlas Capital Management managing director John Pereira.
Exports were at a 33-month high of US$22.5 billion in December, with potentially between US$215 billion and US$225 billion worth of goods to be exported in the 2010-11 financial year, Pereira said.
There were also record levels of foreign direct and institutional investment into India in 2010, helping to fast track India’s recovery from the global financial crisis and demonstrating a broader confidence in the nation’s political and economic direction, Pereira said.
“India is now in the second term of a pro-reformist government, with further liberalisation taking place and more investment in infrastructure,” he said.
An example of this was the deregulation of the Indian telecommunications market, which led to an increase in the number of India’s mobile phone subscribers from 10 million in 2002 to 600 million now, Pereira said.
But there were also a series of scandals around perceived corruption issues in 2010 and it is important that the Indian Government clamps down on these to avoid further damage to investor sentiment, he said.
