Although I am based in Singapore, I can throw some light on it.
There is another institute in India, known as ICFAI - Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India which gives out the same CFA charter. So there is a copyright conflict which is going on between the two institutes. That is the reason why CFAI is unable to conduct the exam in India. Candidates from India fly to Singapore for the exam. It is quite unbelievable - this time around for December '08 L1 exams, there were 4,600 registered candidates in Singapore and I can vouch that more than 3,000 of them were from India. It was like being back in Delhi or something.