India presents an immense economic opportunity because it is a "mature emerging market'', said a top tax lawyer and business strategist from that country.

"Bermuda can get involved in India's financial sector, in things like mutual funds, venture capital funds, and insurance,'' said Mr. Nishith Desai, visiting Bermuda last week for the globalisation of mutual funds conference.

"Definitely Bermuda has a role to play,'' he said.

Bank of Bermuda and the Bermuda Commercial Bank have subsidiaries in Mauritius.

The island, which has favourable treaties with India, is located off Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.

The Bank of Bermuda uses Mauritius to access business in India, said Mr. James Masters, executive vice president, bank asset management with the Bank of Bermuda.

Mr. Desai, 45, who specialises in international tax and international financial law, anticipates insurance companies will be permitted to operate in India in about one year.

The changes started in 1991 when a new government came to power in June of that year and in July announced a new economic policy.

Foreign ownership of companies had been discouraged and as a result companies like Coca-Cola and IBM left.

Inflation was running around 18 percent.

It has since dropped to about eight percent.

The cost of services rose as the economic structure favoured the suppliers.

"India has traditionally been a closed economy. The history of foreign investment goes back 400 years to when a charter was given to the East India Company. The company became very powerful and very involved in the political life of India. India has historically associated foreign investment with colonialism. Foreign investment was looked at with some apprehension after the affects of colonialism,'' he said.

When the country was opened up to foreign investment all the infrastructure was in place. Before the existing government made changes the country was on the verge of economic collapse, he said.

"The theory of self reliance was given up and the government embraced the theory of global interdependence,'' he said.

Personal and corporate taxes have been reduced and foreign companies in designated business sectors can now own 51 percent shareholding with each reviewed on a company by company basis.

Coke and IBM are back in India and Mercedes Benz will soon open production facilities in India.

In the last four years the country's foreign exchange reserve has increased from about $1 billion to $25 billion.

India is recognising that for money to flow in it must be able to flow out and as a result exchange controls are being reduced, he said.

The country has never defaulted or had to restructure any repayment plan on a foreign loan.

Even with several important states captured by the opposition, Standard & Poor's still recently increased India's credit rating.

Indian currency is convertible on current account while convertibility is anticipated on capital accounts in about 18 months.

The countries urban unemployment rate is declining and its time zone, eight and one-half hours ahead of Bermuda's, first thought to be a disadvantage now is considered a bonus.

India not only has huge potential as a destination for foreign investment it also has massive purchasing power.

Last year, said Mr. Desai, Forbes magazine estimated 40 million people in India earned on average $30,000 US dollars. Someone making $30,000 in India has the same buying power as someone making $600,000 in the US, he said, citing Forbes.