By Karla L. Yeh, Chicago Correspondent, Markets Media Online

Rising competition in India presents "huge opportunities" for domestic brokerages which have a better understanding of the region than global giants, Uday Raval, director of U.S. operations at outsourcing firm Karvy Global Services, told Markets Media.

"After all this time, brokers, like Lehmans (the) of the world, who have closed shops gave a huge opportunity for mid- to large-market broking houses besides bulge bracket firms," said Raval.

Raval says competition changed drastically since the beginning of 2008, when the boom market introduced foreign money into India as foreign brokerages established client sites for access to India's capital markets. But throughout the past few years, costs to establish offices in India increased and hiring research analysts became "very expensive to hire," Raval said.

"Suddenly, India in 2008 became very steep compared to global markets and all the broking houses who had established themselves in the last two years and were hiring are suddenly volume depleted," he added.

Karvy's presence in India decreased last year, as the firm cut down on its "non-profitable branches" and shut down approximately 150 units. But the firm hired people who were laid off from other firms, and put itself in a "good position," according to Raval.

"In every market, one you position yourself and increase skill levels and have the right people in place, you are in a better position than others," he added.