India ranks 7 th in the world in terms of the area, ranks 2 nd in terms of size of population and with only 2.4% of the area, India shelters about 17% of the world population.

India is the 12 th largest economy in the World with GDP of Ind.Rupees 25,238 billion in the year 2003-2004 which is equivalent to US$ 550 billion. The GDP growth was 8.2% over the preceeding year. GDP growth has been on an average over 6% per annum during the last decade.

The composition of GDP at factor cost is:

• Manufacturing, Mining and Quarrying, Construction, Electricity, Gas & Water supply sectors- 26.6%
• Agriculture, Forestry & Logging and Fishing sectors- 22.2%
• Services sector – 51.2%

In PPP terms, India is the 4 th largest economy in the world and it is estimated by the economists that by the year 2030 it will be 3 rd largest (after China & USA).

India is one of the largest producers of number of products, both primary and manufactured. India is the largest producer of Milk and is amongst the leaders in production of Wheat, Rice, Tea, Sugar & Spices. It has rich reserves of Iron ore, Bauxite, Coal and Titanium.

It has largest pool of talented manpower. About 20 million Indian are working abroad and contributing to the world economy. One of the largest supplier of software engineers in the world, about 30% of the venture capitalists in the Silicon Valley, USA are of Indian origin.

The number of listed companies in India is second only to USA. The small scale industry sector which is the back bone of burgeoning Indian industry, accounts for around 95% of the industrial units, 40% of the manufacturing sector output and 36% of the exports, provides direct employment to 18 million persons in around 3.2 million registered SSI units.

India’s total trade in the year 2003-2004 was USD 140.86 billion which constitutes 25.6% of the GDP. India’s exports were USD 63.62 billion and imports USD 77.24 billion. The major constituent of exports were manufactured goods (75.03%), Agro products (11.67%) and Ores & Minerals (3.69%).

External earnings on account of Software exports, remittances and tourism were in the region of USD 22.1 Billion for the year 2003-2004.

Foreign Exchange Reserves of India by August, 2004 has crossed USD 122 Billion.