Waves of cash lap at India's shores

Ah, waxing poetical this morning in the headlines at least...

I've talked a bit before about how much more VC and related money is targeting the media, information and tech sectors in India than in China. The Business Standard has a story today about another new fund. Nexus India Capital has just closed a US$100 million fund to invest in technology and other businesses including media.

$100 mn may be petty cash in the US these days but it can stillgo quite a long way in India. In fact, these sorts of funds are fuelling what can only be described as very ambitious thinking among India's media entrepreneurs when it comes to valuations. I would surprised to see many 'trade sales' close in the next six months. They're going to be too expensive for most people.

Still in India, two other stories caught my eye and they seem a bit contradictory: firstly, over at contentsutra.com, there's a piece about how "India has the lowest Internet penetration rate at 3 percent in the Asia-Pacific region". Meanwhile, Agency faqs reports that "The advertising expenditure forecast by the media agency ZenithOptimedia predicts that by the end of this calendar year (2007), the ad spend on the Internet will be more than double what it was in the previous year (2006)....However, the growth of ad spend on the Internet is expected to take a quantum leap in the next two years – the figure may reach the Rs 2,250 crore mark by 2009, which will be almost 10 times the size it is now".

Plenty of places for that money to go it seems and get a good upside.