Thank You for the answers . To extend this discussion further (to help me and others interested)

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1347922&topic=2371325&ctx=topic

Google apparantly treats some ccTLDs (such as .tv, .me, etc.) as gTLD

.as
.bz
.cc
.cd
.co
.dj
.fm
.la
.me
.ms
.nu
.sc
.sr
.tv
.tk
.ws

So if I understand you correctly .. Google will Penalize me when ranking(in the US) when I have .in or .ca

Is the above a fair statement

We are launching a new site with a non traditional top level domain . We were looking at either .ca or .in as we are not able to get the traditional .com or .co or .net etc .

I was wondering if this has any SEO effect ? Does Google/Bing treat this domain differently .Will it be penalized ?

Note : My site is a US based site targeting US audience