Fat cats and foreigners.

"The stable growth of a demand-driven Indian economy has attracted sovereign wealth funds and pension funds to invest in the country's infrastructure and growing sectors." FE. "India is the most coveted investment market after the United States for sovereign wealth funds and public pension funds, said a study by asset manager Invesco." Because, "India has strong domestic consumption and a growing manufacturing sector. Recent reforms to boost production and manufacturing within the country has also led to a surge in demand." On the other hand, the attraction may be due to, "In India, hegemony is being acquired - or getting awarded - in domestic sectors. India's import tariffs are behind only Sudan, Egypt and Venezuela, giving entrenched domestic groups more bargaining power over 1.4 billion consumers," wrote Andy Mukherjee. "Economists Arvind Subramanian and Josh Felman have drawn attention to the increasing heft of the '2As' - businessman Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani - as evidence of an 'extraordinary concentration of economic power'." "India's biggest conglomerates, which wield enormous pricing power in the retail, resources and telecommunication sectors, are contributing to elevated inflation and should be broken up a former central banker said." ET. "The 'Big 5' consisting of Reliance Group, Tata Group, Aditya Birla Group, Adani Group and Bharti Telecom have grown at the expense of smaller local firms, said Viral Acharya who was Reserve Bank deputy governor between 2017 and 2019. At the same time, the government's 'sky-high tariffs' have shielded these conglomerates from competition by foreign firms." "Margins of several large packaged goods companies picked up sharply in the January to March period...and are expected to improve through the current financial year, industry executives and analysts said. They attributed the improvement to a decline in costs of key commodities, consumers' ability to absorb price hikes in urban markets and premiumisation of select categories." ET. "Banks in India disbursed more loans to home buyers than corporate borrowers in FY23, indicating robust demand for mortgages despite the rise in interest rates. This was a result not just of wooing home loan customers but also because corporate loan pickup was lower than initially expected." Mint. Clearly, there is no reason for companies to increase production when they can increase prices and rake in fat profits. "If it can maintain its momentum, India will overtake Germany as the world's fourth largest economy in 2026, and knock Japan from the number three spot in 2032." CNN. Indeed. While, "Politicians are competing to promise freebies, including in election manifestos, as a budgetary routine. This implies the poor are treated as a bribe/favor receiving vote bank by potential and incumbent elected representatives," wrote Prof MV Sridhara. And there are over 800 million of them. NDTV. For the fat cats, it's jam today. No wonder foreigners want a slice of the pie.