World Inc sees India nifty for new ops: NYSE

More corporates from across the world are keen on setting up operations in India, ranked the top destination for investments and acknowledged as being strategically important to them by global businesses.

The sub-continent has been named the fifth most crucial region in terms of overall strategic importance - ahead of places like Japan, Brazil, Russia, Australia and New Zealand and only next to the US, Western Europe, China and Japan, according to a New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) survey of top business leaders representing companies from 24 countries.

From US-based Wal-Mart to UK's Vodafone, businesses are betting big on a presence in India.

As many as 42% of CEOs said India was strategically key to their business through 2008 -- with 12% terming the country's importance as crucial and 30% as important, said the survey, which took responses from 240 CEOs of NYSE-listed firms.

The US emerged as the most crucial area with 92% of the CEOs finding it of strategic importance. NYSE, however, said this finding is driven partially by the large proportion of the US-based respondents. The US was followed by Western Europe (55%), China (54%) and Canada (47%).

India was named as the single-most crucial region by one out of 100 companies from across the world, while the ratio was much higher at one out of 48 among the non-US companies. None of the US companies said India was the most crucial area for their business though the next year.

However, India received top honours in terms of scouting for possible locations to set up operations. About 47% CEOs said their focus on India was primarily related to exploring favourable locations for operations or plants.