Surging stock market with Sensex over 10,000 points, inflation at less than five per cent, interest rates benign, merchandise exports likely to touch 100 billion dollars and over 8.1 per cent growth in the first half of this fiscal, the economic prospects have never been so good with strong macro-economic fundamentals enabling India to move on to the higher growth path of 8-10 per cent in 2006. This is what a group of students from Finland got to know from the Discover India Program hosted by Rai Foundation.

The program that started from September 18 th is being conducted by Rai Business School (RBS), Delhi. A group of nine Finnish students are here for a twelve week Discover India Program, to explore Indian business environment, financial markets, mindsets, cultural heritage, art forms, architecture, history, crafts and general growth areas. Discover India Program gives the students glimpses of modern India along with the knowledge of India and its Civilization.

Discover India Program, an exclusive program for foreign students, covers primarily two areas: economy and culture. The gamut of issues concerning Indian economy and business - geography, population, nationalities, administrative regions, climate, resources, environment, policy, business, consumer, labor markets, etc. - is covered during the program. Indian culture is the other area of focus in this program that covers information about food, religion history, etc. The emergence of China and India as big economic powers has raised the significance of Asia. Due to the promise of growth, overseas students are increasingly interested in exploring India.

On their arrival for the program the Finnish students expressed joy and curiosity. Antti Lindvall, undergraduate student at Hame Polytechnic, Finland says, "many Finnish companies will consider knowledge about India a very big plus." He is very keen to learn about Indian economy and culture. He emphasizes on the need of close contacts between India and Europe. Sini Pankka, student at Lahti Polytechinc School, Lahti, Finland, comments on the study tour, "this country fascinates me and many others in Europe and we know that the future's biggest economies are going to be (or already are) in Asia."

The faculty members of RBS who are involved in the program appreciated this experience of imparting knowledge to international students. Program Coordinator Anuraag Mathur says that this is mutually beneficial experience. Deepika Arora, RBS Dean, expressed deep sense of satisfaction over the successful conduction of such programs. She further stated that such programs give RBS students an opportunity to know about global business environs and also gear up RBS faculty and administration to match international standards.