It depends on what you use it for and how much it costs.
I've built quite a few decks, and there are major problems with the playback quality of commercial designs currently available in India. I have access to schematics of NAB tape preamps, but they need to be well built (read: No veroboard) to keep noise down.
Therefore I generally recommend buyin a used deck. I personally use a Sharp deck with a replacement Ferrite head and overhauled mechanical transport (the really hard push button keys) that is working excellently. No Dolby, simple VU meters, etc, and the thing cost under 3000 Rupees. A great buy by my standards.
As to the comments on India, there are a few problems, let me clarify what Vivek must've been trying to say.
The most widely used format in India is the cassette tape. It is much more economical than CDs, which typically constitute (legally) about 5% of music sales. Also most of CDs in India cost about $10, and some about $5-&6. Cassettes typically cost $2.50 or so, and if you look at the average GDP of the country, cassettes make more sense for most of the population. This is of course not counting piracy and downloading from K*Z**.
If you now account for the fact that most new music hits the indian scene first through piracy (an Example: Riding with the King was relased in India almost 6 months after its international release) and in the form of cassettes, a tape deck makes a lot of sense in our context.
Of course the cassette being a listening format not extensively suited for high end listening, it does not make sense to spend mucho bucks behind it in the first place...