Two news items caught my attention recently.

Versace, which opened a store in Mumbai in 2006, is looking to expand in India. It opened a second store in Delhi, reportedly one of their largest outlets worldwide. And it’s trying for an airport terminal store in Delhi. All this when the company globally made a loss because of the economic downturn.

Meanwhile, Sony launched its first Indian video-game earlier this year: Hanuman, Boy Warrior. (Predictably, there was an objection to having a deity as a video-game character. Unpredictably, the objection came from a US-based person.) Sony plans another half-dozen titles. The company’s India country manager said that India had the world’s largest untapped potential for videogames.

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India’s unsaturated markets are clearly a draw, recession or not. Its luxury market may be thin, but there’s still enough to attract some brands – and keep them.

And while a Price Waterhouse survey shows that companies in India are cutting costs to deal with the recession, this doesn’t seem to have stopped the expansion. For example, Accenture is planning to hire 8,000 people in 2010, bringing its total Indian staffing to 50,000.