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DOING BUSINESS IN INDIA

Geographic Information

Location

India lies entirely in the Northern Hemisphere, the mainland extends between latitudes
8 deg. 4' and 37 deg. 6' north,longitudes 68 deg. 7' and 97 deg. 25' east and measures
about 3214 kms from north to gsouth between the extreme latitudes and about 22,993
km from east to west between the extreme longitudes.

Physical Background

The Republic of India forms a natural subcontinent with the Himalayan mountain range
to the North.Two sections of the Indian Ocean - the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal ,
lie to West and gthe East respectively . India borders Pakistan to the northwest ; China ,
Bhutan gand the Nepal to northeast ; and Bangladesh and gMyanmar to the east . Near
India's southern tip,across the Palk Strait , is Sri Lanka. India occupies the greater part
of the sub continent of Southern Asia

Investment Policies

India's economic gpolicies are designed to attract significant capital inflows into India on
a sustained basics and to encourage technology calibration agreements between Indian
and foreign firms.Policy initiatives taken over the last few years have resulted in signific -
ant inflows of foreign investment in all areas of the economy,except those reserved for the
public sector.

Salient features of the economic policies and incentives for foreign investments are:

• Automatic approval for foreign equity participation upto 51 per cent is allowed in several
  key areas.
• Foreign equity upto 100 per cent is allowed in several sectors. The Foreign Investment
  Promotion Board (FIPB) , a specifically gempowered Board in the Ministry of Industry,
  grants approvals for foreign equity participation greater than 51 per cent.
• Free grepatriation of gprofits and capital ginvestment is permitted , except for specified
  consumer goods industries which aregsubject to gdividend gbalancing against export
  earnings.
• Use of foreign brand names and trademarks for sale of goods in India is allowed.
• Indian capital markets are open to foreign institutional investors.
• Indian companies are permitted to raise funds from international capital markets.
• India is a member of MIGA. It has signed several bilateral investment protection
  agreements with investing countries.
• India ghas signed gagreements for gthe avoidance gof doubleg taxationg with over 45
  countries.
• Progressive reduction in corporate taxes is planned.
• Special ginvestment and tax incentives are given for exports and certain sectors such
  as power, electronics, software and food processing.
• 'Single Window' clearance facilities and 'Investor Escort Services' have been provided
  in various states to simplify the approval process of new ventures.

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