Diverted to markets.

"According to NSDL data, India's mutual funds industry now controls Rs 76.41 trillion in assets under custody, slightly ahead of FIIs at Rs 76.22 trillion." "This marks the first time domestic funds have surpassed foreign investors in overall holdings." This is because SIP (systematic investment plans) have increased to a record Rs 320.87 billion in March 2026. "Annual SIP investments hit Rs 3.34 trillion in 2025, up from Rs 2.68 trillion in 2024, according to AMFI data." msn.com. "Mutual fund SIP inflows rose by Rs 8.27 billion or 3% month-on-month to Rs 317.81 billion in June, from Rs 309.54 billion in May." "SIP assets stood at Rs 17.70 trillion," and "The number of Contributing SIP accounts stood at 97.83 million in June 2026." ET. "Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) are a far cry from turning bullish on Indian shares, with the recent buying in the cash market attributable to the closing out of reverse arbitrage (arb) positions rather than fresh market buying, per market experts." "Reverse arb, the opposite of arbitrage, involves purchasing stock futures and selling the underlying stock to lock in the spread." Mint. "Arbitrage refers to the practice of simultaneously buying and selling the same asset in different markets to profit from price discrepancies." "Arbitrage opportunities are usually short-lived because markets adjust rapidly." bajajfinserve.in. "Corporate India's recent balance sheet numbers confirm that," "Even as profits recover, they are investing in financial assets at twice the rate at which they invest in factories and machinery. The shift underscores corporate caution as subdued demand, moderate capacity utilization, and geopolitical volatility keep a much-awaited broader private investment cycle on hold," wrote Abhinaba Saha & Niti Kiran. Demand is subdued because households are losing confidence in the economy. The Urban Consumer Confidence Survey by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) shows that "the Current Situation Index has fallen for the third consecutive round, down to 90.7 from 95.7 just two months earlier." The Rural Index has fallen to 95.2. Anything below 100 is negative. TNIE. "Experts are of the opinion that making an investment just for the sake of it is not a good idea." Investors err when they invest without a defined goal, chase recent performances (recency bias, wikipedia), underestimate valuation and risk, churn their portfolios too often and do not respect asset allocation. Mint. Perhaps, people are being forced by the RBI to gamble on the stock markets because they are losing money in banks. In its last meeting in June 2026, the Monetary Policy Committee of the RBI held its interest rate at 5.25%. NDTV. "Retail inflation based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) in May 2026 was 3.93%." pib.gov.in. This means the real interest rate works out to 1.32%. "Consumer inflation, measured by the annual change in the CPI is expected to have quickened to 4.3% in June from 3.93% in May, economists forecast in the poll conducted July 3-9." Reuters. Which means a meager real interest rate of 0.95%. Since bank interest is taxable as income, the returns on bank deposits are deeply negative. People are gambling to protect the value of their savings. In the last fortnight in June, bank deposits grew by 2.7% to a total of Rs 265.4 trillion, while banks credit or advances jumped 18.6% to Rs 219.3 trillion. TOI. "Analysts warned that the widening gap between loans and deposits has pushed the banking system's loan-to-deposit ratio to one of its highest levels in more than a decade, raising concerns over funding sustainability." ET. Consumers have little confidence in the economy and bank deposits. Companies are shy of investing. The RBI is channeling money into stocks. Will the markets drag everything down. The RBI will have to explain.

It's a stalemate.

"US President Donald Trump has repeated his claim of settling the conflict between India and Pakistan, adding that 11 jets were shot down during the four-day hostilities in May last year." "India has consistently denied any third-party intervention." "Trump said Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif credited him with saving 30 to 50 million lives by stopping the Indo-Pak conflict." ET. Three days ago, US Attorney Bill Essayli announced charges against the leader of an Indian criminal group in connection with the assassination of a Sikh leader. "He spoke alongside officials of the Los Angeles Police Department, the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police." "Lawrence Bishnoi, 33, and his childhood friend Satinderjeet Singh are accused of orchestrating the assassination of a well-known Sikh independence activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar." ABC. Nijjar was shot on 18 June 2023 in the parking lot of the Guru Nanak Singh Gurdwara in British Columbia in Canada. Then Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau blamed the Indian government for the killing, which was followed by tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats from both countries and relations between India and Canada dropping to its lowest point. wikipedia. This is extremely odd. Why is a US lawyer announcing charges in a crime that occurred in Canada? Has Canada ceded jurisdiction on crimes committed on its soil to the US, or is the US attempting to create a rapprochement between India and Canada? If so, who gains? "According to a report submitted by Canada's auditor general to parliament..., the share of Indians in the country's incoming international student population was just 8.1% in September 2025 - a sharp drop from 51.6% in 2023." "Study permit rejections rose from 38% in 2023 to 52% in 2024 in Canada according to ICEF Monitor, which focuses on international student mobility." "So the question has shifted from how to go to Canada to whether to go at all." BBC. Lawrence Bishnoi, born Balkaran Bishnoi, has been incarcerated in Sabarmati Jail in Gujarat, India since 28 August 2023. "According to sources, Bishnoi is being held in complete isolation from other inmates." And yet, he is apparently able to run his criminal empire from behind bars. TNIE. Bishnoi's friend Goldie Brar is thought to have ordered the murder of Punjabi rap singer Sidhu Moose Wala. "Not much is known about Brar, apart from the fact he is on the Interpol Red Corner list, and is a key operative in a network of gangsters operated by Bishnoi." "It is thought Brar emigrated to Canada" where "he initially worked as a truck driver." BBC. While taking on the Nijjar case from Canada, the US is yet to conclude the alleged plot to murder Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, with dual citizenship of the US and Canada living in New York, also in 2023. TOI. Indian national Nikhil Gupta was arrested from Prague in the Czech Republic on 30 June 2023 and extradited to the US. On 13 February 2026, Gupta confessed to offering $15,000 to a hitman, who happened to be an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent, to kill Pnnun. The Wire. The US named former Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) officer Vikash Yadav as Nikhil Gupta's handler. Yadav has been charged with abduction and extortion of a city-based businessman. In August 2025, a non-bailable warrant was issued by Additional Sessions Judge Saurabh Partap Singh "against Yadav after he failed to appear before the court despite repeated summons in the alleged kidnapping and extortion case." "On 24 March this year, a court had granted Yadav an exemption from personal appearance on his bail plea citing threat to his life after his personal details were made public." TOI. Brilliantly done. Since crimes in India take precedence over US charges and since court cases can, and do, continue for decades in India, Yadav can lead a normal life without having to appear for hearings. That also prevents one of our intelligence officers from being interrogated by US justice officials. Bishnoi is safe in prison. We seem to have reached a stalemate. Time to move on?  

The risk of anything new.

"A new generation of small nuclear reactors is up an running - or nearly so - in the United States," The milestone made possible by billions in private and government funding, was on display in the middle of the Idaho desert." These small modular reactors (SMRs) are "compact enough that one was transported to the site by a pickup truck." "SMRs promise cheaper, faster-to-build nuclear power that can go almost anywhere," and is "positioning itself as a tool for American influence abroad." ET. SMRs "are advanced nuclear reactors that have a power capacity of up to 300 MW(e) per unit, about one-third of the generating capacity of traditional nuclear power reactors." "SMRs offer savings in cost and construction time, and they can be deployed incrementally to match increasing energy demand." iaea.org. "Even as $2.3 trillion in market value was erased from tech's elite 'Magnificent Seven' stocks last month," "the Semiconductor sector has experienced a historic surge. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has rallied more than 90% this year, tacking on another 6% gain just this month." TOI. Last year, Google let off two "firebombs", wrote Nilesh Jasani. The first was Google's generative AI Gemini which it integrated with its "existing services to sustain its dominance over a sprawling billion-user ecosystem."  The second was "its latest Ironwood Tensor Processing Unit" which "boasts 4,614 T-flops of peak compute power and 192GB of high-bandwidth memory, showing Google's ability to engineer hardware optimized exclusively for its models." Companies in the US spend vast sums of money on innovating new products, often encouraged by the US government, which puts them ahead in new technologies while the rest of the world tries to play catch-up. Sadly, R&D figures in India have fallen from "an already modest 0.83% of GDP in 2009-10 to 0.64% in 2020-21." Until the liberalisation of the 1990s, high customs barriers protected Indian companies from competition with foreign companies. "Today, the culture of rent seeking is perpetuated - despite the relative openness to the world inherited from the reforms of the 1990s - by the influence of industrialists close to the government, known as oligarchs or 'cronies', who succeed in owning or having the governments they finance raise customs barriers (often non-tariff barriers) that hinder the entry of foreign competitors into the Indian market," wrote Prof Christophe Jaffrelot. The Indian government has set aside Rs 10 billion ($120) for its AI mission. "One Nvidia H100 GPU, which is essential for modern AI, costs about $30,000 to $40,000." "What's even more surprising is that out of the meager Rs 20 billion set aside for FY26, only about Rs 8 billion was actually used - a 40% utilisation rate," wrote Arindam Goswami. "Operating under the department of atomic energy, which is headed by the Prime Minister, Indian Rare Earths Ltd (IREL) is today 75 years old." It should be producing rare earth magnets but "India's ecosystem lacks the technology to make rare earth magnets. And entrepreneurs are absent, too," wrote T Surender. Indian businessmen are averse to risks that innovation brings. Ironically, the CEO of Google Sundar Pichai is of Indian origin. wikipedia. Indians can do things. But, not in India. 

Well done Sri Lanka.

"Sri Lanka has regained upper middle-income status just three years after a severe economic crisis brought the country to the brink of collapse in 2022." The World Bank reclassified it "from the lower-middle-income category after the economy expanded by 5% in 2025, supported by broad-based recovery across industries and growth in tourism and financial services." TNIE. In May 2022, "Sri Lanka has defaulted on its debt for the first time in its history as the country struggles with its worst financial crisis in more than 70 years." "Sri Lanka is seeking to restructure debts of more than $50 billion it owes to foreign creditors, to make it more manageable to pay." BBC. India's Real GDP, or GDP at Constant Prices, grew at 7.7%, while Nominal GDP, or GDP at Current Prices, grew at 8.9% in 2025-26. pib.giv.in. Although it has fallen from an all-time high of $728.494 billion, India's foreign exchange reserves were at $666.933 billion during the week ended 26 June. CNBC TV18. And yet, "India remains in the lower-middle-income category," while The Philippines, Vietnam and Jordan have also been upgraded. India Today. "India is facing an acute jobs and wages crisis. Young people have disproportionately felt the impact. Just 7% of the population is now prosperous enough to pay I-T (income tax), and no young person entering the job market, even with professional or postgraduate qualifications, is paid enough to be in even the lowest tax bracket," wrote Rathin Roy. Jobs have to be created and for that India needs to offer goods and services that people will want. Patent filings have rocketed to 60,000 in 2023 from 40,000 in 2013, but "Patents are not subjected to blind peer review by experts," and "There is no measure of intrinsic quality, impact or scientific merit. Since the legal test is all that must be met, a surge in filings need not reflect a wave of genuine innovation." Universities have increased their patent filings to 42% of all filings in 2023 from 20% in 2013, which helps for advertising, wrote Mihir Mahajan & Arindam Goswami. "The Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE) of 2025 counts 79.2 million unincorporated non-agricultural establishments in India." "The Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) 2023-24, reports that the average registered factory employs 73 workers, ASUSE shows the average unincorporated establishment employs only 1.6. This is near solo work." Because, "When the modern sector does not create enough stable, productive wage jobs, self-employment becomes the default option rather than entrepreneurial choice," wrote Prof Saumitra Bhaduri & Shubham Anand. Even our laws are aganst the unincorporated sector. The law says that "buyers are legally obligated to settle vendor bills within 45 days if a written contract exists, or 15 days in its absence. The statue mandates a penalty and compound interest liability for non-compliance." And yet, "Large private entities and government bodies routinely stretch payment cycles to 90,120,or 180 days." The government may not pay on time but it wants its cut straight away. GST must be paid by the 20th of the next month from when the invoice is generated, regardless of whether the bill has been settled, wrote Ajit Ranade. The government and its cronies blatantly break the rules. No wonder Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Jordan have climbed higher than us. We are down there with Pakistan. World Bank. Siamese twins.        

Optimistic Indians.

"Morgan Stanley yesterday assigned a 25% probability to the BSE Sensex hitting 100,000 by June 2027. It said the bull case scenario was based on assumptions including oil prices staying below $80 a barrel, reflation policies beginning to deliver results and earnings growth compounding at 19% annually over FY 2026-29." BT. A 25% probability means a 75% against and no one can predict the price of oil. "Reflation is a policy response to economic slowdowns that aims to boost spending and counter deflation." "Reflation aims to stop deflation - the general decline in prices for goods and services that occurs when inflation falls below 0%." Investopedia. That is definitely not the case in India. Consumer price (CPI) inflation came in at 3.93% in May 2026, higher than 3.48% in April. pib.gov.in. The Indian rupee has fallen to over 95 to one dollar from about 88 in 2025. bankbazaar.com. If the rupee falls further it could cancel out any fall in the price of oil and increase consumer prices by increasing the cost of transport. "India's economy is expected to maintain growth of above 7% in 2026-27 (FY 27), supported by strong domestic consumption and investment, even as global growth could slip below 3%...the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry said. Morgan Stanley's prediction is not a "bull case scenario", it is bull something else. It is an irresponsible incitement of Indians to invest in the stock market. "This should not be called a share market. This should be called a poison market. This is poison and it will kill everyone one day," said Shankar Sharma. "if you close the stock market for 10 years in India, then India will really grow." India Today. Earlier he said, 'India cannot afford to offer foreign capital fully convertible currency exits amid a balance of payments deficit. A price must be extracted for exits. A crashing stock market is that price. In fact, a crushed stock market almost always guarantees massive foreign inflows." Mint. The rupee is sinking mainly because Indian stock markets are overvalued compared with their peers." Foreign investors (FPIs) have withdrawn $53 billion from Indian markets in the last 18 months. But the market is barely down. Because, "Fund managers have convinced investors that they should not try to time their entry into markets and invest a regular sum every month. This has induced a rising SIP (Systematic Investment Plan) inflow, up from Rs 200 billion/month at the start of 2025 to Rs 320.8 billion in March 2026." And this has allowed FPIs to exit at a high price, wrote Swaminathan Aiyar. The stock market exuberance is despite the May 2026 Consumer Confidence Surveys by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which show that the Urban Current Situation Index has fallen to 90.7 from 95.7 two months earlier. A reading below 100 is negative and 90.7 falls in pessimistic territory. The Rural Current Situation Index has fallen to 95.2. TNIE. "India ranks as the second-most optimistic country among 30 markets in the April 2026 wave of Ipsos' What Worries the World survey, with 72% of urban Indians saying the country is moving in the right direction. This places India among a small cluster of high-confidence economy." Ipsos'.com. But now, "The Future Expectations Index for urban India dropped to 118.7, its lowest reading since September 2023." "Worsening expectations threaten consumption demand - the largest component of growth in India." So, why did Morgan Stanley make such a ridiculous suggestion? Is it, like our 'godi (lapdog) media', trying to flatter our government, or is it trying to push up our stock prices to boost profits of US investors? Either way, it's unethical. Even wrong.        

Aiming high.

"India's higher nominal GDP growth in FY 27 is likely to help the government keep its fiscal deficit under control," "while real economic growth may moderate from FY 26 levels amid global headwinds, higher inflation is expected to lift nominal GDP growth, supporting tax collections and helping the Centre manage its finances." ET. High inflation reduces the value of the rupee and the value of our earnings and wealth but is great for our rulers. That's what matters in India. "Given wages (after inflationary erosion is accounted for) have not grown across livelihoods, households have been forced to meet consumption expenses through borrowing." This "explains the fall in India's household net financial savings, to a historical low of 5.2% of gross national disposable income (GNDI) in FY 23 from its longstanding average of 7-8%," And, "resulting in a combined household debt - outstanding secured and unsecured loans - breaching 40% of GDP by the end of 2023," wrote Prof Deepanshu Mohan & Srisonia Subramoniam. "Bank lending accelerated in the April-June quarter of FY 27, but deposit mobilisation continued to trail credit growth, widening the funding gap across the banking system and highlighting mounting pressure on banks' liability franchises, according to the Times of India." ET. "Earlier this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India aims to achieve developed country status by 2047, the centenary of its independence from the British Empire." "While the country has 167 billionaires, more than 129 million people still live below the poverty line," and "over half the country's fifth grade students struggle to read at a second-grade level." Restrictive labor laws mean that "while 46% of India's labor force works in agriculture, the share of manufacturing workers declined from 12% to 11% between 2023 and 2024." World Finance. "The just-released sixth National Family Health Survey shows that India's child malnutrition rate was at a substantial 32% in 2023-24," "far higher than sub-Saharan Africa's 20-22% levels." Wasting was at 19% compared to just 7% in 35 African nations. Even malnutrition among adults is higher. The number of women with body mass index below 18.5 (the threshold for adult malnutrition) has risen from 18.7% in 2019-21 to 19.7% in 2023-24, while that of men has risen from 16.2% to 19.7%, a rise of 15%. TNIE. India must grow at 8% per annum over two decades to become a developed economy. "Yet, from 2014-2024, the economy grew at only 6.2% annually (base 2012), compared to 7.8% per annum over 2004-2014." In 2024, there were 330 million non-farm workers in India's 610 million workforce and about 28 million educated youth were looking for jobs. "Shockingly, 40% of all youth (15-29 years) in the workforce are in unpaid family labor," wrote Profs Santosh Mehrotra & Jajati Parida. "In May, the NCRB reported that 63% of all suicide victims came from economically insecure households." These problems are being created by India's success in services. "India's services exports, which were almost nothing in 1995, have risen to $418 billion in 2025-26, nearly as large as goods exports (442 billion). Add $144 billion that India gets from remittances from Indians abroad - you could call this labor exports - and you find that goods exports have become a minority." "In 2025-26, low-skilled goods exports totaled $187 billion against $254 billion for high-skilled manufactures and $412 billion from services (mostly high-skilled)," wrote Swaminathan Aiyar. Fall of low-skilled exports means lower earnings for low-skilled workers. Which explains rising malnutrition among children and adults. The solution seems to be simple. Intense education and high nutrition for our children and we can expand high- skilled exports. But then, 28 million educated youth are still looking for jobs. Developed country? First get to sub-Saharan level.    

Oral proof is absolute.

"Within hours of India and Japan unveiling a series of agreements on defence, critical minerals, artificial intelligence, energy security and economic resilience, Beijing cautioned that cooperation between countries should not target a third party or 'create exclusive small groupings'." "Chinese officials may not publicly acknowledge it, but much of the summit agenda touched areas where China currently enjoys significant leverage. The push for diversified supply chains and reduced dependence on any single country was especially notable." ET. "At the invitation of the President of the Republic of Indonesia, H.E. Mr Prabowo Subianto, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will pay a visit to Indonesia from 6-8 July, 2026. This will be the Prime Minister's fourth visit to Indonesia." mea.gov.in. "If India and Indonesia finally seal a long-discussed BrahMos missile agreement, it will mark far more than another defence success for New Delhi." "The Philippines has already acquired BrahMos batteries and Vietnam has now joined the list." "Malaysia and Thailand have also reportedly shown interest." "Long range coastal missile batteries allow relatively smaller powers to exploit that geographic advantage without matching China ship for ship." ET. Poking China in the eye may be so satisfying but, "A tribal organisation in Arunachal Pradesh's upper Subansiri district has alleged that the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has gradually occupied parts of its ancestral land along the India-China border, prompting calls for an official verification and an immediate response from the state and Central governments." MC. In June 2020, an unprovoked attack by the PLA barbarians, armed with nail-studded clubs, resulted in the death of 20 Indian soldiers at Galwan Valley in Ladakh. BBC. China is estimated to have lost over 40 soldiers. All those nations with BrahMos missiles will not come to the aid of India, so we must deal with our existential enemy China by ourselves. "On the one hand, India increasingly seeks a greater role in world affairs. On the other hand, its response to major international crises remains cautious and selective." "It seeks a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Its capabilities, however, remain those of a rising power still undergoing economic and technological transformation." DH. "For more than a decade now, India has sought to build its 'strategic autonomy'. New Delhi has booked a place at every high table - the Quad with Washington, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization with Beijing, BRICS with Moscow, and the I2U2 Group with Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi." "Officials, cultivated the art of the rhetorical win, and crafted exquisite put-downs for neighbors and superpowers alike." The result is that, "India has friends everywhere, but leverage nowhere," wrote Mihir Sharma. In a WSJ piece, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent quotes a sentence by Alexander Hamilton on 5 December 1791 which said that every nation "ought to endeavor to possess within itself all the essentials of national supply," wrote Aditya Sinha. To that end India started the Atmanirbhar (self reliance) Bharat Abhiyan on 13 May 2020 with an allocation of Rs 20 trillion. tribal.nic.in. The problem is that in 2024-2025, 93% of India's permanent magnet imports, 70% of bulk drugs and intermediaries and 87% of some antibiotic categories, all came from China. How can India become strong when the government does not consider any of us as citizens? Every Indian has to acquire all kinds of identity documents but not one certifies citizenship (ABP). Despite providing 15 documents a man could not prove his citizenship as the Gauhati High Court "held that oral testimony alone, without relevant documentary evidence to back it up, was not sufficient to establish the link between father and son." ET. Actually, oral testimony is conclusive. Just take swabs from the mouths of both men and test for DNA. Simple and conclusive.. Most worrying: if our soldiers are not citizens why are they dying to protect India? And our leaders. Who probably are the only citizens.      

Stop restricting foreigners.

"India's economy remains on a sustained growth path supported by strong macroeconomic fundamentals, government officials said." "The government has maintained its emphasis on capital expenditure despite an unexpected rise in fuel and fertiliser subsidies caused by a prolonged blockage at the Strait of Hormuz." "In April and May 2026,capital expenditure stood at Rs 2.51 trillion compared to Rs 2.21 trillion during the same period last year, registering a 14% jump." HT. "India's gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections rose 13.9% year-on-year to Rs 1,94,812 crore (Rs 1.95 trillion) in June 2026, driven largely by a sharp increase in tax revenues from imports, according to provisional data." "Total GST refunds increased 29.1% to Rs 324.36 billion in June 2026." From April to June, "gross GST collections reached 6,31,699 crore (Rs 6.32 trillion)." TOI. "India's foreign exchange reserves declined by $5.65 billion to $666.93 billionin the week ended 26 June," according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). ET. "India's external debt rose by $26.3 billion to $762.8 billion by March 2026," so that the external debt-to-GDP ratio increased to 20.8%. "Long-term external debt - with an original maturity of more than one year - stood at $613.5 billion at the end of March 2026," which is good, but "On a residual maturity basis, which includes long-term debt maturing within the next 12 months, short-term debt accounted for 42.9% of total external debt at the end of March 2026." BS. Which means $327.24 billion will need to be repaid within one year out of our reserves. Of course, India will earn more foreign exchange in that time, but should we be worried? Foreign tourists should be a lucrative source of foreign exchange. On paper, India received 18.89 million international tourists in 2023, higher than the pre-pandemic 17.91 million in 2019, but a large proportion were non-resident Indians (NRIs) and Bangladeshis, many of whom came for medical treatment. "On the economic front, foreign exchange earnings from tourism rose 31.5% to $28.08 billion but could rise to $50 billion by FY 27-28 through "policy vision and execution", thinks Dipak Deva, CEO of Travel Corporation India Ltd., wrote Varuni Khosla. "Net foreign portfolio (FPI) outflow hit Rs 2 trillion in 2026 recently, already 25% more than FPIs pulled out in all of 2025." One reason might the yield spread between US Treasuries and Indian government securities (G-Secs). "From a 21st century average of 350-400 basis points (bps), spreads have shrunk to 250 bps today." A second reason is the over-valuation of our equity markets, which is because of buying by domestic investors, resulting in a vicious cycle. "FPIs sell, saying Indian valuations are relatively high, but then domestic liquidity funds orderly exits without much price impacts," wrote Somnath Mukherjee. Foreign direct investment (FDI), which is for business, is considered more stable. In 2022, Amazon withdrew from bidding for the Indian Premier League cricket tournament. "Amazon has said its investment in India will surge past $35 billion by 2030, but much of that will go to data centers dedicated to artificial intelligence (AI) - not e-commerce." Probably because India will not allow foreign companies to hold or control inventory. ET. However, Indian quick commerce companies operate from dark stores which stock a wide assortment of goods, from fresh vegetables to mobile phones. BT. We want foreigners to give us their money but we do not welcome them as tourists or as investors. So they take our money and run. Not surprising, is it?