Head of Broking at JPMorgan, Sameer Lumba says that Indian managers are world class and through the India Conference 2006 that begins shortly, hopes to showcase the best of corporate India.

This is the first time that a US major is holding a conference in India which has already seen over 330 Individual investor registrations and a response from investors in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Europe and US .

Excertps from CNBC-TV18's exclusive interview with Sameer Lumba:

Q: Tell us about the interest you had in your conference and how many new investors are participating this time?

A: The response has been overwhelming and the conference is from Nov 1st to Nov 3rd. Currently we have 330 individual investors registered for the conference. The number of requests has been over 2,000 and we have been able to schedule 1,050 meetings.

The client response has been diversifying and encouraging as our investors have come from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Europe, US and we have been positively surprised by the kind of response we have seen.

The good thing is that India story is well understood and the secularity is being appreciated, but clearly there is more upside even from here and it augurs very well for the market in general.

Q: Do you find it challenging to do a investor conference at 13,000 plus on the Index at new highs or can you convey to your investors that there are lots of ideas to pick up at this point and it will not be somber kind of conference from these levels?

A: The Indian managers are world class and China as well as India theme is being showcased here .

We have tried to differentiate ourselves by having three tracks for the conference. One is a 'Hands on India' programme where we are getting specialized independent speakers to talk about different spheres and explain to the clientele what’s happening in the market place.

The second is the 'MNC theme,' where we have multinational companies talking about their experience in India and how they see things going forward.

The third is showcasing the best of corporate India. Recently some of the large companies like Infosys, TCS , in terms of the kind of results they have shown and the ability to surprise positively, is simply unbelievable.

There are lot of companies, which have not been well researched or well understood by the market. We are seeing an interest increase for India, which is very encouraging.

Q: You said that investors from various geographies are coming in but what about the kind of investors who are attending, Do you have lot of hedge funds, absolute return funds, any new funds, which have never invested in India?

A: What is happening is you have funds that run country mandates and so they are coming in large teams coupled with the global emerging market. People tend to come for these conferences because they take a more top down view and they want to visit the companies and see what’s happening on a relative global emerging basis.

Events like this attract new investors and I think there is clearly a greater bias towards more long only in our conference and a reasonable amount of Absolute Return Funds.

Q: We had a fair dollop of cash from the Far East, what are you gauging in terms of interest from there, is it still high? Are people willing to commit more cash for this market?

A: I think the Far East has increased investments in India but a lot of it is out sourced i.e given to professional money managers who in turn invest it into the Indian market.

So it is not as if they have not been investing in India. I think in terms of direct exposure you have to have the requisite skill sets, build the requisite team and see how they want to invest directly.

But the outsourced money into India has definitely increased and that trend should continue.

Q: What is your outlook from here onwards as you look into the next quarter or so?

A: I am quite positive that the companies and sectors that we like will continue to perform and Indian market on a relative sense is still under owned. One has seen the response in some of the Chinese bank deals and I think larger deal flows from the Indian market and more positive developments which take place in form of conferences etc showcase the better companies from India.