Excerpt from  Maria Dickerson, L.A. Times,  June 2007

Indian companies are starting to invest in Latin America, though still relatively small, but is growing quickly. Indian firms have invested about $7 billion in the region over the past decade. That number is expected to double over the next 5 years, says the head of Latin American division of India's External Affairs Ministry.  Similarities in consumer bases help make the region a natural market.

Like China, India is trying to lock up its supplies of energy and minerals to feed its roaring economy. India firms have stakes in oil and natural gas ventures in Colombia, Venezuela and Cuba. Bolivia last year signed a deal with New Delhi based Jindal Steel and Power Ltd., which plans to invest $2.3 billion to extract iron ore and build a steel mill in that South American nation.

At the same time, Indian information technology companies are setting up outsourcing facilities closer to their customers in the West.  Tata Consultancy Services, in Mexico, said 98% of his company's employees in Latin America were locals. TCS is the leader, employing 5000 tech workers in more than a dozen Latin American countries. Last month in Guadalajara, Mexico it inaugurated an office that would employ 500 people.

Mumbai-based Tata Motors Ltd. has formed a joint venture with Italy's Fiat to produce small pickup trucks in Argentina. General drug makers, such as Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd, are looking at markets to grow and are offering low-cost alternatives in a region where US and European multinationals have dominated.

Brazilian President Lula da Silva traveled this month yp India with a contingent of entrepreneurs looking to forge stronger ties. Mexico sent its biggest ever business delegation to India in March, and the two nations recently signed an economic cooperation accord.

Mexico has been particularly hard hit by China's rise. Mexico's trade deficit with China was a record $22.7 billion last year. China has invested less than $100 million in Mexico since 1994, according to figures from the Bank of Mexico.

Mexico's trading relationship with India, albeit small, is much more balanced. Mexico's trade deficit with India was just under half a billion dollars last year. Indian companies have invested $1.6 billion in Mexico since 1994 - about 17 times more than Chin, according to mexico's central bank..