Qatari businesses can look forward to investing in India, especially in infrastructure development, as the field has been opened up 100 percent for foreign capital, said an apex body of Doha-based Indian chartered accountants.

A lot incentives are being given by the Indian government for investments in infrastructure sector in the budget for the budget unveiled for the current financial year (2009-10), said the president of the Doha Chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), Kurian Kuriakose.

The Chapter held a seminar recently on the Indian Budget 2009-10 at the Ramada Hotel. One of the two sessions was cosponsored by the Indian Business and Professional Network (IBPN). Kurikose was delivering the welcome address.

Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa, Indias ambassador to Qatar, was the guest of honour, while Doha Bank CEO, R Seetharaman, also attended. Keynote speakers were S Sunderarajan, H P Ranina and CA T N Manoharan.

The main sponsor for the event was ExxonMobil and Doha Bank, the support sponsor. In times of economic recession, India along with China is showing positive economic growth and this will generate a lot of interest of foreign businesses which look out for investment opportunities at a time when the opportunities in Europe or US have become scant, said Kuriakose.

Seetharaman spoke about New World Order. He explained how countries like India, Brazil, China and Russia together were shaping the new world order. The emergence of new world powers is making significant changes to the world order.

Sunderarajan, a renowned ex-IIM-Bangalore faculty member, and Director of Morison Muscat Knowledge Centre conducted a training session titled Measuring Business Performance A Paradigm Shift. Management is all about working consistently on creating value for all the stakeholders, he said.

In the second Session, CA T N Manoharan from Chennai, India, a past president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and Government of India nominee to the Board of Directors of Sathyam Computers, spoke about Taxation Provisions Indian Budget 2009.

Manoharan said of the Indian budget that it was a balanced budget which provided a roadmap for the next five years. The budget has rationalized TDS (tax deducted at source), abolished Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) and increased in Minimum alternate tax (MAT).

One of the areas where NRIs as well as others can take advantage is the Investment incentive in specified businesses implemented in the budget to allow 100 percent expense claims (except land and goodwill) for investments in Cold storage, Warehouses and Companies engaged in laying oil pipelines.