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Of all the crazy events in 2008, seeing the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in flames on TV is one I’ll remember for a long time. Last year, when I traveled throughout India, my first stop was Mumbai (or Bombay, as people still call it). I stayed at the Taj Mahal Palace.

India’s stock market is down 23 percent this year. But it’s still one of the world’s great long-term growth plays, says Martin Hutchinson in part two of Money Morning’s special report on BRIC economies.

India is suffering high inflation, its growth is slowing and there are signs that a credit crunch is about to hit. But this can work to the advantage of investors. Without these problems, India’s stock market would be trading at 40 times earnings – and not 18 times earnings, as it is now.

Martin says that buy buying into India now, investors are likely getting in on the ground floor of a major long-term bull market.

The GDP, gross domestic product, of any economy is the sum of all economic activity that occurs in every household, in every company, at all levels across the economy. So, if you buy a pair of jeans at the store there is a lot of GDP involved.

May is a quiet month. The children are out of school, the heat and dust of the Indian summer swirls around. The discussions begin on where to go for the vacation. For how long? With which group of friends? And how much to spend.

It was a tale of two headlines. The Indian newspapers reported that, for the 3 month period ending March 31st, the BSE-30 Index was down 23%. This was the worst on record since the time the Index data was compiled in 1979. Meanwhile, the US newspapers reported that the US markets had their worst quarter in 5 years and the markets in the US were down 6%.