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MARK AUSTIN THOMAS: The Web is hot in India. A new study says use of the Internet has grown faster there than in China, Japan and Germany. It’s even outpaced the US which has more Internet users than anywhere else in the world. Miranda Kennedy gives us the digital details.

MIRANDA KENNEDY: India now has the world’s 9th largest online community: 18 million Web users.

That’s still tiny compared to the 153 million Americans who are online, but Kiran Karnik, head of India’s IT industry association, says India started out with so few people using computers, that there’s massive room for growth.

KIRAN KARNIK: Here’s a very, very large country with a growing middle class and growing disposable incomes. Now accessing these services online which puts them straightaway into the global market.

eBay, Yahoo and Google are already ramping up their presence in India to take advantage of the new Web users.

And Karnik says there are other signs of India’s growth as an online powerhouse. Not only are its people surfing the Web more, its IT companies will export 30% more software and services over the next few years.

In New Delhi, I’m Miranda Kennedy for Marketplace.