With all the coverage in the media of the phenomenal growth of the Chinese market, other vital trading partners have been overshadowed a little in the excitement. Like a younger sibling, India has been closely tailing China over the past few years.
It too is expanding at an enormous rate and thus providing huge potential for investment in up-and coming companies.
But if you ask an Australian investor, most business people, or just the person in the street about our links with India, you'd probably get the standard: cricket, Bollywood films, curries, music and perhaps tourism.
You'd be lucky to find anyone who knew the real story.
India is now Australia's fourth-largest trading partner and the second-fastest growing economy in the world (behind China). It is progressively increasing production of a widening range of products to meet the surging consumer demand.
You name it, the Indians are either making it, importing it, or searching the world for more of it: coal, foodstuffs, retailing expertise, steel, ships, planes, cars, knowledge, and luxury goods. Like the China story, the list is long and growing longer.
Since escaping the shackles of strict governmental control in the 1990s and bending to a capitalist doctrine, the Indian market has transformed into a well oiled machine and as such has faced an enormous boom that shows little sign of slowing down for long.
The Indian economy grew 9.1 percent in the three months to March 31 this year, and has averaged a quarterly pace of 8.8 percent in the last two years. This is a huge jump from the 5.7 percent during the 1990s.
The Reserve Bank of India expects the economy to grow 8.5 per cent in 2007-08. But if this is optimistic, it wouldn't be by much, and India would retain its number two place in the world's large economies.
Gross domestic product in India has grown at an annual rate of about 8.6 per cent over the last four years, and the world has begun to cotton on to the country's potential force in the world economy.
Within Australia, active discussions are underway about expanding links with India. New initiatives and acquisitions popping up all over the place, in companies big and small.
According to the Trade Commissioner of the Australian Trade Commission, Michael Carter, Australia is currently "trying to export skills and services into the Indian market in the field of agri-business, agri-business services, education, financial services and food precession."
On May 1 this year, a new program called Utsav Australia was launched by the Australian Government with the specific aim of accelerating growing commercial engagement with India.
This program is part of a $6.5 million Australian Government initiative announced in last year's budget to provide additional Austrade representation and expanded reach into India.
According to the Utsav Australia website, the program "is a first-of-its-kind, sustained three-year marketing and promotions program developed to raise awareness of Australian business and industry among the Indian business community."
Austrade is hoping to gain business relations with India in all sectors including advanced manufacturing and aviation, consumer retail, food and beverage, ICT, infrastructure including 2010 Commonwealth Games projects and mining and resources.
Utsav wasted no time in kicking off its promotion of Down Under as a commodity, and on June 12, the Consul General and Trade Commissioner for Australia, Peter Forby, was in India speaking at a seminar on ''Doing Business with Australia''.
Mr. Forby said that India is a vital trading partner of AUS and so it is important to foster greater business relations between the two countries.
The seminar showcased the services offered by the Australian Trade Commission in Nashik, identifying potential Australian business partners, sourcing Australian technology, products, services and expertise, and naming Australian joint venture partners and investors.
And it seems Mr Forby wastes no time, because on Monday this week he was at work again, alongside Mr David Belham, the Commissioner of Queensland, addressing a press conference at the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the capital Panaji.
They were there with the same aim in a new city: snagging any business opportunity possible with Goan companies.
They stated that they want to look beyond the beaches and the resorts in Goa, as Queensland is already doing business with Sesa Goa in the mining sector. Mr Belham emphasised the similarities between Goa and Queensland, even comparing the Goa International Film Festival of India and the Queensland Warner Brothers film studio, a bit of s stretch, but he made his point.
He maintained that India is Queensland's number three trading partner and exports from Queensland to India have amounted to $ 2.6 billion.
An attendant at the conference, Mr Manguirish Pai Raikar of the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry, commented that Goa was looking at the possibility of building a marina in Goa with the help of Australian companies, with the Goan government having expressed an interest in the project.
Mr Belham then put in his two cents worth, adding that the majority of the marinas in Dubai have been built by Queensland companies.
And there are other potential projects on the go that suggest the business interest is not a one-way street.
India's largest private power firm, Tata, has been scoping out Australian assets and is currently in the midst of talks with Australian miners, including Rio Tinto Coal Australia, to acquire coal mines in Queensland and New South Wales.
If successful, the acquisition will meet the entire captive coal requirements of Tata Power. The company is planning to expand its capacity five times from the current 2,400 MW, p
