SHIVA Capital, its management and team are active in India since 1996!

The geography of India is diverse, with landscape ranging from snow-capped mountain ranges to deserts, plains, rainforests, hills, and plateaus. India comprises most of the Indian subcontinent situated on the Indian Plate, the northerly portion of the Indo-Australian Plate. Having a coastline of over 7,000 kilometers, most of India lies on a peninsula in Southern Asia that protrudes into the Indian Ocean. India is bounded in the southwest by the Arabian Sea and in the east and southeast by the Bay of Bengal.

India is the seventh-largest country in the world, with a total land area of 3,287,263 square kilometers.

The demographics of India are overall remarkably diverse. India's population of approximately 1.13 billion people - estimate for March 2008 - comprises approximately one-sixth of the world's population. India is expected to overtake China by 2030 and will then be the most populated country in the world.

India has more than two thousand ethnic groups, and every major religion is represented, as are four major families of languages (Indo-European, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman languages) as well as a language isolate (the Nihali language spoken in parts of Maharashtra).

The economy of India, measured in USD exchange-rate terms, is the twelfth largest in the world, with a GDP of around $ 1 trillion in 2008. It recorded a GDP growth rate of 9.0% for the fiscal year 2007–2008 which makes it the second fastest big emerging economy, after China, in the world. At this rate of sustained growth many economists forecast that India would, over the coming decades, have a more pronounced economic effect on the world stage.

Despite this phenomenal rate of growth, India's large population has a per capita income of $ 4,542, measured by PPP, and $ 1,089, measured in nominal terms - revised 2007 estimate. The World Bank classifies India as a low-income economy.

India's economy is diverse, encompassing agriculture, handicrafts, textile, manufacturing, and a multitude of services. Although two-thirds of the Indian workforce still earn their livelihood directly or indirectly through agriculture, services are a growing sector and play an increasingly important role in India's economy.

The advent of the digital age, and the large number of young and educated populace fluent in English, is gradually transforming India as an important 'back office' destination for global outsourcing of customer services and technical support.

India is a major exporter of highly-skilled workers in software and financial services, and software engineering.

Other sectors like manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, nanotechnology, telecommunication, shipbuilding, aviation , tourism and retailing are showing strong potentials with higher growth rates.