India good place to do business, says experts at WEF

Reposing faith in India's growth story, leaders gathered at the World Economic Forum (WEF) today said the country remains a good place to do business and its fundamentals are quite strong.
The optimistic views about India were discussed at the session 'The India Outlook', that also saw the participation of Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
Japanese financial major Nomura's CEO (EMEA) Jeremy Bennett said that India still remains a great place to do business.
"I am very positive about India...India still remains a great place to do business. In fact what I have seen is that Indians themselves are very gloomy and pessimistic about India," he said.

Noted economist Thomas Friedman said he was hugely optimistic about India even though the country is facing big challenges.
"I still believe in India's huge human resource pool... Its noisy, its messy, it can be violent at times, but it is a country that still remains a true democracy.

"India's pluralism and its ability to manage...Is a big lesson for whole world. At the end of the day, it is governance that matters," Friedman said.
Internet major Google's Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora said they have been very bullish about India for a long time.
"We find it is a great market for our products and services. As far as foreign investors are concerned, India certainly can do a lot more to give them more assurance about policies. Its a fair country to do business, but at times we may need more certainty," he said.

Participating in the discussions, Chidambaram said in India there are different layers of decision making, then there are courts that can strike down the decision and "we also have street protests".
According to Friedman, India's culture of education is a real asset.
"The online world will give them huge opportunities. What I now see is that young Indian entrepreneurs are using technology for solving their problems too," he said.
Hoping that upcoming elections in India are able to produce a government that delivers, he said there may be noise and all messiness around, but still things can move ahead.
"I am optimistic (over the) medium term and there is already expectation (that) there will be more stability after elections," Bennett said.

Bharti Group Chairman Sunil Mittal said technology, telecom and Internet have served the nation in a fantastic way in the recent years.
"One suggestion I would give to the current and next government, is that they should package some big projects well and deliver them to the world for everyone to see what India can do," he added.