Tap neighbours for profit punch

 New Delhi, Nov. 6: India is finally waking up to the huge benefits it can derive from trade in its immediate neighbourhood.

Bilateral trade with its South Asian neighbours rose more than a third in 2010-11 over the previous year to nearly $16 billion. Trade with Bangladesh alone has almost doubled to more than $4 billion over the same period.

To fuel this growth, India is building a web of ports, highways and railways that will help it to integrate better with the markets of the sub-continent.

Next week, even as the heads of states of the region meet in Male, Indian businessmen have started talking about a trans-subcontinental gas grid, which would carry gas from Afghanistan, Iran, Myanmar and Turkmenistan through the region and an electricity grid to distribute electricity generated in India, Bhutan and Nepal to other power-starved parts.

Bangladesh bond

In just one year, India