India’s sheer vastness in terms of population alone means its potential cannot be ignored. With more than a billion people it’s no surprise that it’s a market the world has its eyes on.

There is little doubt that the progress made in India has been impressive over the years but there is a growing sense of impatience and frustration among many foreign investors and custodians that things have not moved faster.

In the financial services world, trading improvements, including a shift from the old paper-based market, in line with other more sophisticated locations across the Asia region, highlight a mostly positive direction and regulators are working overtime to keep up with demand.

Foreign investment continues to surge with capital inflows reaching record highs in 2009 despite the global financial crisis. The purchase of Indian shares by foreigners exceeded sales...