India Calls for Large Investment Participation

The new India government led by Narendra Modi has urged international investors to invest in India as the country marketing itself as an emerging investment and business hub.

At the India Economic Summit 2014 held in New Delhi, India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told a roomful of international and Indian CEOs attending, the country is waiting for you.

"Infrastructure, let me tell you, we welcome large investment participation, even international participation," Jaitley said. He said legislative reforms to open industries such as real estate, railways services and even defense would be easy to sell in a country sometimes wary of big change.

Economists estimate India needs a staggering $1 trillion in infrastructure investment alone. That's more than half India's entire gross domestic product for 2013 of $1.87 trillion.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has enchanted Indians with his vision of a country crisscrossed by modern roads, high-speed trains, dozens of high-tech smart cities and universal Internet cables.

Investors, optimistic about India's economy under Modi, helped push GDP growth up to 5.7 percent in the first quarter, after two straight years of economic malaise with the rate under 5 percent. Modi has promised to get growth back up to the 8 percent it averaged for a decade up to 2012.