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The XIXth Commonwealth Games being held in New Delhi from October 3 to 14 should be seen as a coming of age ceremony for India, a participant at the Seventh Annual India Investment Forum being held here has said. Harvey Shapiro, a senior adviser to Institutional Investor, said the Games could be a "coming of age ceremony" for India. Shapiro felt that initially wary foreign investors were now more comfortable. "Maybe the Commonwealth Games could be like a dress rehearsal for bigger, more ambitious events," he said. Other participants have said that India's ability to pull off ambitious events like the Commonwealth Games has made foreign investors less anxious. "The final verdict about the opening ceremony seems to have been good, after all the anxiety leading up to the event," the Wall Street Journal quoted Ajit Ranade, chief economist at the Aditya Birla Group, as saying. "The hue and cry from the people and media seems to have played a big part. It could have been a different situation otherwise," he added. "India doesn't host events like this very often, but Korea, South Africa and Brazil, have taken the leap and India too could get there," " said Shapiro, who is part of the organizing committee of the India Investment Forum. According to Srinath Geedipalli, a director at New York-based Simanor, investors are often frustrated by the absence in the lines of communications between heterogeneous departments. "Things eventually come together in the last minute but the anxiety is always there," said Geedapalli, 35, whose firm provides mergers and acquisitions and other advisory services for companies in the U.S. and India.

Commonwealth Games is a coming of age ceremony for India: Expert