Pradeep Banerjee

Why Europe’s Biggest Market Opportunity Could Change the Way India Does Business There are trade agreements, and then there are trade agreements that make exporters start checking their calculators twice. The India–European Union Free Trade Agreement (FTA) belongs to the second category. On January 27, 2026, India and the European Union announced the conclusion of negotiations for their long-awaited FTA at the 16th India–EU Summit in New Delhi. It followed years of negotiations and the formal relaunch of talks in 2022. But there is an important distinction: the negotiations have been concluded; the agreement has not yet entered into force. Legal revision, approvals, signing and the respective internal procedures still have to be completed. The Indian government says the FTA will enter into force after India and the EU exchange written notifications confirming completion of their internal legal procedures, unless they mutually agree another date. That distinction may sound like legal paperwork. For Indian exporters, however, it is the difference between “opportunity coming” and “opportunity available.” A market of roughly 2 billion people The scale is difficult to ignore. India and the EU together represent a market of around 2 billion people, approximately one-quarter of global GDP, and around one-third

From Workers to World Leaders There was a time when the story of Indians going abroad was largely told through airports: a suitcase, a passport, a job offer and a family waving goodbye. Today, that story looks very different. An Indian abroad may be a software engineer in Silicon Valley, a doctor in London, an entrepreneur in Dubai, an academic in Australia, a construction worker in the Gulf—or the person sitting in the corner office of one of the world’s biggest technology companies. India’s global presence is no longer simply about migration. It is about skills, businesses, money, ideas, culture and leadership moving across borders. According to data from India’s Ministry of External Affairs, approximately 35.42 million overseas Indians were recorded as of May 2024, including about 15.85 million non-resident Indians and 19.57 million people of Indian origin. The community stretches across more than 200 countries and territories. That number is large enough to create a small thought experiment: if the overseas Indian community were a country, it would be one of the world’s larger populations. But numbers alone do not explain its significance. From migration to leadership One of the most visible changes has happened in corporate leadership. Satya

Beyond India’s Borders: How Global Tenders Can Open New Markets for Indian Businesses For a small Indian manufacturer, service provider or exporter, entering an overseas market can appear to require enormous resources: finding buyers, understanding foreign procurement systems, establishing credibility and competing with companies already familiar with the market. But there is another route to international business that is often less visible to the general public: global public and private tenders. The Indian Trade Portal’s Global Tender Service is designed around this opportunity. According to the portal, its service brings international tender opportunities to Indian exporters across more than 100 countries and 25 business sectors. The platform also maintains past tenders, allowing businesses to examine previous opportunities and understand markets. The idea is straightforward: instead of waiting for an overseas buyer to discover an Indian company, an Indian business can actively look for procurement opportunities in international markets. A different way to think about exports Export growth is often associated with large corporations, established brands and major manufacturing groups. Global tenders present a different possibility. The Indian Trade Portal specifically identifies MSMEs, Indian manufacturers and service companies among the businesses that can benefit from its Global Tender Service. The objective

India’s artificial-intelligence story is entering a more consequential phase. The question is no longer simply whether Indian companies can build AI products for the Indian market. The bigger question is whether those products can travel—across languages, industries, regulatory environments and national borders. A new partnership…

India’s Global Acquisition Drive: Why Indian Companies Are Buying Abroad Indian companies are increasingly looking beyond India’s borders—not simply to sell more products, but to secure the assets, capabilities and supply chains that may determine who remains competitive in the next decade. That shift is…

How India’s Entrepreneurial Talent Built 205 Unicorns Abroad For decades, the Indian diaspora has been measured in familiar numbers: population, remittances, professionals, students and migrants. A new dataset suggests that another number deserves attention. $560 billion. That is the founder-share-attributed company value associated with 205…

India’s 7.8% Growth Story: —and Why the Number Alone Is Not Enough At a time when the global economy is dealing with geopolitical tensions, expensive energy, disrupted supply chains and uncertain trade conditions, India has produced a number that naturally attracts attention: 7.8%. That is India’s real GDP growth in the first quarter of financial year 2026–27, covering April to June 2026. According to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, real GDP was estimated at ₹81.36 lakh crore in the quarter, compared with ₹75.46 lakh crore a year earlier. Real Gross Value Added grew even faster, at 8.2%. The number is significant. But the more important question is not simply how fast India is growing. It is what is driving that growth—and whether it can continue. From a 7.4% outlook to 7.8% reality Earlier this year, APCO Worldwide’s India Outlook 2026 described India as one of the world’s fastest-growing major economies and projected growth of around 7.4% for 2026. Its analysis pointed to domestic demand, infrastructure investment, digital transformation, reforms and India’s growing international economic role. The actual first-quarter number has now come in higher. That does not mean the APCO forecast was “wrong” in any dramatic sense. A

UPI at 10: How India’s Digital Payment Revolution Became a Global Technology Story There was a time when paying for a cup of tea in India could involve searching for change, asking whether the shopkeeper had ₹10, and occasionally beginning a philosophical discussion about who had the correct amount. Then came UPI. Today, a customer can scan a QR code, enter a PIN and transfer money directly from a bank account in seconds. What began as a relatively modest digital-payment experiment has become one of India’s most important pieces of digital public infrastructure—and increasingly, a technology that India is taking beyond its own borders. In 2026, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) completed a decade of operation. The numbers behind that decade are extraordinary: annual UPI transaction volume reached 24,162 crore transactions in FY2025–26, while annual transaction value reached about ₹314 lakh crore. By July 2026, 741 banks were live on the platform. And July itself produced a record: 2,366 crore transactions in a single month, worth about ₹29.88 lakh crore. That is no longer merely a payment app story. It is a technology story. What exactly is UPI? UPI was developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) under

Indian Businesses in the UAE There was a time when the Indian presence in the UAE was discussed mainly in terms of workers, remittances and the millions of Indians building careers across the Gulf. That story is now incomplete. In 2026, another Indian presence is becoming impossible to ignore: Indian businesses. By the end of March 2026, 84,088 Indian companies were registered as active members of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce, after 3,995 new Indian companies joined during the first quarter alone. Indian companies represented the largest foreign business community among Dubai Chamber’s members. That number is not simply an immigration statistic. It is a business statistic. And it says something important about how the India–UAE economic relationship is changing. Dubai is becoming more than a place to sell to For many Indian entrepreneurs, the UAE is no longer just an export market. It is becoming a regional operating base. Dubai’s location provides access not only to the Gulf but also to markets across the Middle East, Africa and parts of Europe and Asia. That makes the UAE particularly attractive for companies that want to internationalise without immediately establishing offices in multiple countries. The strategy can be relatively simple: Build