EXCLUSIVE
India's central bank governor, Raghuram Rajan, says recent economic events in China are troubling but he insists India's growth prospects remain good in the face of financial market turmoil. 
In a wide ranging interview with Fairfax Media, Dr Rajan predicted India's contribution to global growth would get "bigger and bigger from here" and that there was a "lot of promise" for Australian firms in India's fast growing economy.
Dr Rajan sent a clear message to investors and businesses: get in now because India will be the place to be in the next decade.
"If anybody was to look towards a big source of demand in future it would be hard for them to miss India," he said.
"If our implementation matches our promise I have no doubt that in the next five or 10 years this will be the place to be - so good to get in early."
Dr Rajan suggested that Australian firms consider trade and investment opportunities in India's burgeoning services sector including finance, health care and education.
"Because of the common language - different accents but common language - I think there could be a lot going on there," he said.
Some of Australia's biggest companies, including ANZ and Telstra, have made promising investments in India in recent decades only to retreat at great cost.
When asked about this Dr Rajan said: "I'm not sure it's anybody's fault - there have been periods of strong growth and there have been periods where people have thrown in the towel and said it is impossible doing business."
But he said many foreign companies which stayed the course had found India to be a "very lucrative market".
India is now the world's fastest growing major economy and is forecast to grow by between 7 and 7.5 per cent this financial year.
Dr Rajan was chief economist at the International Monetary Fund between 2003 and 2006 and was this month named central banker of the year by The Banker magazine.
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