West Midlands Minister Liam Byrne argues that the West Midlands needs to be ambitious if it is to succeed in India.

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Mumbai is gigantic. One city with more than twice as many people as the entire West Midlands and the capital of corporate India. The perfect place to ask just what the West Midlands needs to do to boost our trade with what may become the world's third largest dollar economy in under two decades.

In the Midlands we are already seeing the force of that growth. Over 1,000 jobs have been created in the West Midlands by Indian investors since 2005.

But if Sonjoy Chatterjee, executive director of ICICI Bank is right, this is just the start of things to come. ICICI is India's second largest bank and a new investor in Birmingham's Colmore Row and Coventry.

Sonjoy's argument is simple. The growth in India's economy at over nine per cent a year is producing a surplus of capital that is simply outstripping the supply of quality opportunities locally. That money is going in search of deals globally.

But the Indian business leaders I met have a warning.

As Shankarnarayan Rao, executive director of export-import Bank of India put it to me, the whole world is courting Indian cash. Over coffee, the chairman of one of India's greatest trading companies was straight. The Midlands shouldn't forget its manufacturing traditions. But it has to aim in becoming truly world-class where our cards are strongest.

His group has no business that isn't one or two in its global market. We could learn from that.

Harish Sheth, chairman of Setco Automotive, recently bought a UK clutch manufacturing business. His business was so pleased with what they found they've just decided to build their technical research centre here in the UK.

But as vital as inward investment may prove it may not be worth as much as export growth.

Here, business leaders in Mumbai argue that the real opportunity for the Midlands is not amongst the giants (like Vodafone's buy out of Hutch) - they'll look after themselves.

The real deal is for the mid caps and SMEs which Indian business think have got a lot to offer. The secret, they argue, is uniting Midlands ingenuity and technical expertise with India's cost advantages and market scale.

So where's the big opportunities in India? Shubhada Rao is the chief economist of Yes Bank, one of a new breed of aggressive banks expanding fast.

She argues there are four big opportunities - partners to support India's hard pressed infrastructure straining under the pressure of nine to 12 per cent annual growth; manufacturing partners, who are generally recognised as leading India in innovation but lagging behind in costs, software and media.

Lots of commentators here contrast China's new infrastructure with some of the pressures on everyday life in India - like in energy and transport. But skills shortages - and the huge hunger amongst ordinary Indian families for education - could be worth an export fortune, whether its delivered through education, research or commercial partnerships.

Today UK-India trade is worth some £8.7 billion and is growing at some ten per cent a year. But beyond scale are long traditions - like democracy and property rights - that may mean India's growth stays high - and stable. That makes India a West Midlands priority.