Pakistani Business Prospects Leave Indian Firms Competing Each Other

When Pakistan’s prime minister made a rare visit this week to India, plenty of people had little interest in talking about regional peace, or the Kashmir militancy, or nuclear proliferation.

They had something else on their minds: money. Indian companies are falling over each other to do business in Pakistan – an economic explosion unimaginable just two years ago, when a million soldiers stood facing each other across the two countries’ shared border, and the South Asian rivals appeared poised to fight their fourth war.

“There is a huge change in the way Indian companies are looking at Pakistan, and vice versa,” said Yogendra Kumar Modi, president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Indian companies are exporting sugar, plastic, pharmaceuticals, rubber, iron ore and tea to Pakistan. From across the border, Pakistani businesses send fabrics, spices, fruit and nuts…