what is the value of a .in, does it have a real value w.r.t a .com

This would be a good place to start:
http://www.inforum.in/general-indian-domain-name-discussion/2-complete-list-indian-domain-name-sales.html

You can see a lot of the larger sales have happened in the last 6 months.

A big challenge comes from the need for education on the value of distinct, powerful brands – and by extension: good domain names. In Maharashtra, for example, there must be at least 500 companies that use the word ‘global’ as part of their company name. That number does not include STD booths.

The Indian economy’s history of having only a small number of competing (or largely non-competing) firms in each market sector has meant that branding savvy played little role in commercial success. Now that the market is opening up, there are few good role models to show how a smart domain name has helped propel entrepreneurs to commercial success.

A recent survey in the UK found that most owners of small and medium businesses had not given much thought to their domain names—in an economy that has had wide Internet penetration for over a decade.

In India, even among those who see the value of a good brand, there will be a strong tendency to seek out a fresh registration rather than going onto the secondary market. Janta will prefer any random domain extension such as .info or .biz, rather than pay money in the secondary market for a good domain name.

You often see brand decisions (and domain name decisions) being made by promoters or others with little or no understanding of branding principles. Many people would rather clone or imitate a Western brand than hire a consultant to provide brand and domain-name choices that will create long-term competitive advantages in the markets to be served.

Perhaps we could help by having a vote on this forum and then giving out awards for the worst branding and domain name choices by Indian corporates. We could make it an annual contest, with the results reported to major press outlets.

We could also conduct a survey of the IT ministers in the various states to see how many of them have registered their own names as domain names. If IT ministers are not Internet savvy, how can we expect the average babu to show any interest?

Well, almost all of those bigger power countries are having an extension for their ownself. Just like that .in is for Indian domains. So, it DOES has value.

The Indian domain market is so different I don't think that you can compare .in values with .com values.

True, .com is common for everyone but .in is specialized for Indian Domains. Anyhow, .co.in seems better than .in

If we go by what the erstwhile rulebook says .com is for commercial domains, as .org is for organizations, and accordingly .in is a country specific domain. So totally different niches.

Of course the tld has its own value. Because every organisation or country will try to have their own tld. In this way, they could create an identity for themselves. So it is for sure a great success. As said, the sales of the domain names are on ever increase. This itself is a very good proof.

In contrast to the above post, I would say that over the last year, most of the new entrants into the ITeS field in India that I have seen have not bothered to even register one domain name, regardless of extension.

With the availability of free email services from Gmail and Yahoo, and with the availability of free sub-domains on Web 2.0 platforms such as Ning, hard-charging startup guys see less of a need now to spend the money on a domain name.

The issue of branding seems even less important now to janta than a year back. We have a lot of work to do, if this situation is to change. Personally, I see that shame works better than guilt.

.IN is a late entrant in the domain industry, and with so many extensions available now, i doubt if anyone could compare .com with .in. With the natural advantage available to .com over .in and perceived assumption that search engines favour .com, everyone aspires to own a .com ..

However 2-3 years down the line, I am sure the situation would change and .IN would command a better price (hopefully..)

thx
Veena