"After China, India will be the next growth story," Yves Carcelle, CEO of Louis Vuitton, said in the Indian capital at the start of a two-day conference promoting international luxury goods.

The per capita income in India hovers just above 700 dollars, according to the World Bank, but with a one-billion-plus economy, increasing numbers of people are crossing into the category of super-rich.

India now has the highest number of billionaires in Asia, accorded to Forbes magazine, and 1.6 million households earn more than 100,000 dollars a year, making them all potential customers of luxury goods.

The Indian luxury market is thought to be worth some two billion dollars and is growing at 20 percent a year, according to India's main trade federation FICCI.

"We believe in the potential of the Indian market," added Carcelle. "But right now we are just at the beginning."

For the moment, sales in India for the brands represented by the Comite Colbert, an association of 70 French luxury houses, are tiny, accounting for a quarter of a percent of worldwide sales of 40 billion dollars.

But according to retail consultancy Technopak, which last year surveyed 4,000 affluent consumers across the country, the Indian market could potentially be worth up to 14 billion dollars a year.