The Tata Group, whose sales of cars, appliances and computer software account for 5 percent of India's annual exports, is investing in Australia, Bangladesh and South Africa to increase overseas income.
India's biggest group of companies by market value was aiming for overseas sales to make up 30 percent of total revenue - from 20 percent now - to spread its risks, Ratan Tata, the chairman, said in an interview in Mumbai.
He didn't give a time for reaching the goal.
"We are looking at creating a presence in different countries. I don't think we had a drive for the overseas push previously. We were focused domestically."
The 126-year-old Tata Group, with sales of $14 billion (R86 billion) in the year to March 31 2004, would put up factories, build hotels, buy mines and set up more branches abroad.
The group's acquisitions since 2000, financed mostly by its own funds, include a maker of components for buses in Spain, the second-largest maker of trucks in South Korea, Tetley Group of the UK and a steel producer in Singapore.
"The Tata Group is not alone in its push for business interests outside India," said Adrian Lim of Aberdeen Asset Management.
"The Indian market holds a lot of potential, but going global provides more opportunities."
India's economy, the fourth-largest in Asia, expanded 8.5 percent in the year to March 31 2004, recovering from a slump caused by three years of drought.
Rising exports and the lowest interest rates in three decades helped the Indian rupee to strengthen 2 percent against the dollar in 12 months, making overseas acquisitions cheaper for Indian-based companies.
Indian companies have spent $7.1 billion since 2000 buying the units of foreign companies. In the same period, foreign companies invested $12.7 billion buying businesses in India, according to Bloomberg's data.
Shares of Tata Consultancy, the most valuable of Tata Group's 91 companies, have risen almost 66 percent since they were sold for the first time in August 2004, more than double the gain in Mumbai's key Sensex index.
Shares of Tata Motors, the group's biggest company by sales and India's largest truck maker, have surged sevenfold since March 2001.
Profit at Tata Steel, the group's second-largest company by sales and India's number two steel maker, has tripled in the past three years, helping its stock value gain fivefold.
Tata Group's 32 publicly traded companies had a total market value of $32 billion at the end of last week, about 9 percent of the value of the 500 companies on Mumbai's BSE 500 index.
The chairman said Tata Group companies would invest mostly in emerging markets such as Bangladesh because the Tata brand was better known there.
"We are looking at our international operations a little differently," he said. "We are not looking at exports per se. We treated exports on a somewhat opportunistic basis, based on opportunities that arose."
Tata Group plans to invest up to $2 billion to set up steel mills, fertiliser factories and power plants in Bangladesh.
Tata Group wants to invest further in South Africa, setting up branches to sell products to Europe and Africa. Some Tata vehicle models have recently been launched in the country.
Tata Steel would invest in mines in Australia, Brazil and Ukraine, Ratan Tata said.
Tata Consultancy, India's biggest producer of software, already operates in 60 countries.
Sanjay Sinha at UTI Asset Management in Mumbai said a presence in more countries and businesses might help the Tata Group ride out the cyclical nature India's economy and gain access to technology.