India has a central bank that is considered by some to be the best in the world. To quote The Economist, the Royal Bank of India is “conservative and not impressed by fads.” True to that trait, India’s central bank made headlines last month when it became the first central bank to diversify in a serious way away from fiat currencies. It did so by buying 200 tons of gold from the IMF.

India’s stock market, meanwhile, is up five-fold in the last seven years and the economy has been growing at over 7% a year, including throughout the global recession. The World Bank now expects it to overtake China next year as the world’s fastest growing economy.

As market-based economic reforms continue in that country and foreign investment hits new highs, the prospects for long-term growth of the economy and earnings of its major companies remain very good.

Indian investors should do well in the coming years. Yet thanks to the bull-market multiplier of an appreciating rupee, foreign investors in Indian shares may do even better.