The ascendency of India as an economic world power

India's current economic growth — averaging 8.5 percent annually over the past four years — appears sustainable, but the country can do even better by further opening its markets and easing government control, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Tuesday. The Paris-based economic grouping of 30 countries gave much of the credit for India's rapid economic expansion in recent years to its government's efforts in the early 1990s to switch from a socialist-style state to a market-driven economy.

Over the past 15 years, India has significantly opened its markets to foreign competition, cut down government intervention in economic activities and liberalized policies to allow a bigger play for private capital.