Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is to lead a trade mission to India next week which will include Northern Ireland businesses for the first time.
The 150-strong mission has its first stop in Bangalore on Tuesday before moving on to New Delhi and Mumbai later in the week.
Among those taking part are 12 organisations from the North, including Queen's University and healthcare firm Randox Laboratories, a former winner of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Invest Northern Ireland will also be present, as will the NI Film and TV Commission, which will join the Irish Film Board to market Ireland as a location for "Bollywood" movies.
The Taoiseach will be accompanied by Ministers Micheál Martin, Mary Hanafin and John O'Donoghue. On Thursday, Mr Ahern will meet India's president, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, and the prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh.
In recent years Mr Ahern has made a practice of leading trade missions in January before the resumption of the Dáil. Last year he went to China and in 2003 to Mexico.
India is the 11th-largest economy in the world, but it is growing rapidly and could in time be as strong a potential market as China.
India has been designated as one of the key targets for the Republic's so-called "Asia strategy", which has been pushed strongly by the Taoiseach during his years in power. Enterprise Ireland is expected to announce during the Taoiseach's visit that it is to open an office later this year in Mumbai, a city with a population of 17 million.
Few Irish businesses currently trade in India, although Independent News and Media has invested significantly in local newspapers.
"The majority of the companies travelling on this occasion are not engaged in business with India, so this is very much a case of putting a toe in the water. Most are going to see what the possibilities are," said an Enterprise Ireland spokesman.
Meanwhile, the Taoiseach will officially open a road dedicated to the memory of former taoiseach and president Eamon de Valera during his visit to Bangalore.
Mr de Valera, along with other leading figures of the Easter Rising and War of Independence, were highly thought of by generations of Indian politicians, particularly those leading the country's separation from Britain.
Recognising the role played by Irish religious organisations in Indian education, Mr Ahern will visit St Columba's CBS in New Delhi on Thursday and later call at an eye clinic funded through Development Co-Operation Ireland.