India to be top economic superpower by 2030: Survey

India is poised to take over the developed countries to emerge at the top of the heap in the global economic superpower league by 2030, says a survey.

More than half of the respondents (53 per cent) of a survey commissioned by London-based independent think-tank Legatum Institute said India is likely to be the world's most important economic power by 2030.

According to the respondents of the survey, India is now on course to outstrip developed nations such as -- the United States, Japan, Germany and the fast-emerging economic giant China over the next two decades.

The survey, which questioned nearly 2,400 Indian senior managers, entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs said the levels of confidence among the country's wealth-creators is very high, with nearly nine in ten saying they expected India to be in a stronger economic position in the next five years.

Only one in five said the world economic crisis had badly affected business in India, the survey said.

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India is already moving up the economic league tables as the 12th largest economy in the world, as per the World Bank.

Besides, it also ranked 45th in the internationally respected 2009 Legatum Prosperity Index -- which embraces social and political data to provide a wider measure of national success.

About two-thirds of the respondents said Indians were more entrepreneurial than people from other countries and 84 per cent said their country was going in the right direction.

Beyond making money, Indian entrepreneurs are also highly motivated by the broader social impact of their work. Over half (54 per cent) of respondents say the social effects of their business, such as improving the quality of life in their communities or developing people, are a main motivation for what they do, the survey said.

Business start-ups in India in 2007 numbered 20,000 and the evidence for India's economic optimism is vast:

Strong family connections are a key to India's business dynamism. Just over a third (36 per cent) of respondents said that the country's entrepreneurial spirit was rooted in the family, with 30 per cent citing the example set by other business people and 11 per cent citing social networks or friends. Only 2 per cent selected government encouragement and incentives, the survey found.

This finding squares with the 2009 Legatum Prosperity Index, which rated India 5th out of 104 nations in social capital. In addition, nearly half the respondents (48 per cent) relied on family money to found their firms.

Meanwhile, the survey has also pointed out certain factors, which can negatively impact India's economic future.

"Over half of the respondents say that corruption is a serious problem that hurts business in India, and 40 per cent say they have been pressured to pay a bribe," the survey said.

In addition, together with access to finance, government bureaucracy is regarded as the biggest barrier to successfully starting companies in India. Government bureaucracy is also regarded as one of the main three reasons that businesses fail in India.

Likely because of corruption and bureaucracy, more than half of respondents running smaller companies said it was very important to improvise and work around the system to make their companies grow.