First tariffs. Now H-1B. Washington keeps testing India’s footing with new walls on trade and choke point on visas. The intent is the same: raise friction, force a pause. But the response from India is consistent discipline.
India’s discipline looks like growth that keeps its tempo, even when the weather turns. It looks like policy that sands down friction. It looks like a market that leans on domestic conviction when global flows wobble.
On the ground, the pattern holds. Factories keep scaling under Make in India. Infrastructure keeps bending the cost curve with faster freight, cleaner power, and denser digital rails. Capital markets keep turning ambition into capital, backed by the plumbing at home that now runs deep.
That’s the arc of this month: ‘discipline in the face of disruptions’ and the pages ahead follow where it leads.
Discipline showed up first in the growth print. Real GDP grew 7.8% in Q1 FY26, the best in five quarters, and the breadth matters: services, factories, construction and farms all pulled together. The OECD took note, lifting India’s FY26 forecast 40 basis points to 6.7%.
Simultaneously, policy is doing its work. As estimated by Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran, GST 2.0 will return over ₹1 lakh crore to households, and as that money circulates, the total lift to the economy could top ₹2.5 lakh crore. He paired that with a clear fiscal anchor: the deficit path remains at 4.4% of GDP for FY26.
“High-frequency indicators for July and August suggest that even the second quarter [Q2 FY26 real GDP growth] may touch close to 7%.”
— V. Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India
The external read is aligning with the internal reality. Japan’s R&I delivered India’s third sovereign rating upgrade this year, lifting the country to BBB+, after S&P and DBRS Morningstar earlier, a rare streak that speaks to fundamentals and fiscal discipline.
Markets are reading it the same way. HSBC upgraded Indian equities from “neutral” to “overweight” and sees the Sensex at 94,000 by end-2026 (15% upside), arguing tariffs have little earnings impact and policy is turning into a net positive.
Put together, it’s simple: fundamentals are doing the work, policy is keeping its nerve, and that mix is earning India trust, both at home and in how the world prices us.
“Since I’ve been coming here, you’ve accomplished Aadhaar, which I think is an unbelievable achievement. You also carried out a second round of GST reforms, which I think are excellent. Those kinds of changes matter because outdated systems can cripple commerce. You launched a national infrastructure program under Prime Minister Modi. That’s important, because you need sustained investment in infrastructure.”
— Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase
India’s defence and technology capabilities were on full display with the successful test of the Agni Prime missile from a moving rail platform, making it the first such launch in the world. Beyond the symbolism, it highlights how investments in strategic sectors are widening India’s capacity to operate with independence, resilience, and credibility on the global stage.
Digital capacity is scaling in tandem. Third-party data-centre capacity is set to double to ~2,500 MW by March 2028 on ~₹90,000 crore of capex, drawing hyperscalers and domestic platforms. Solar PV manufacturing has crossed 100 GW in capacity terms, improving power reliability and cost. On the financial rails, UPI ubiquity and GST formalisation keep lowering transaction frictions and broadening the tax base.
Infrastructure is turning into a competitiveness lever, enabling cheaper logistics, more reliable energy, and denser digital and payments plumbing. It now links factory, fibre and finance, lowering costs, speeding commerce, and letting India compound.
“Disruptions don’t hinder us, but even in those circumstances, we look for new directions. Amid all these disruptions, India is strengthening the foundations for the coming decades. Our resolve and mantra is Atmanirbhar Bharat. Nothing can be more helpless than being dependent on others. The more a country stays dependent on others, the more its growth is going to be compromised.”
— Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India
Eleven years since its launch in 2014, the idea of ‘Make in India’ is simple and steady: build more at home, from chips to ships. The centre of gravity has shifted to India’s factory floors and test ranges with plants adding lines, suppliers rooting closer to production, and strategic programmes moving from foreign buys to Indian platforms in service. The tone from the top hasn’t wavered: keep adding capacity, deepen the ecosystem, and use every shock as a reason to scale.
Now the shop-floor proof. Sector by sector, here’s where capacity is showing up and value is sticking at home.
These numbers speak for themselves. More of the value chain now lives in India – designed here, built here, and shipped from here – and that is the spine of Make in India.
India’s IPO market set a three-decade milestone. 25 mainboard IPOs in September with more than ₹13,300 crore raised highlights the busiest month since January 1997 which saw 28 IPOs. The SME platform set new records with 53 IPOs, raising ₹2,309 crore.
The liquidity mix is changing for good. Domestic pools, including mutual funds, insurers, pensions, and retail, now routinely anchor deals, with foreign investors competing for allocations.
Additionally, regulators are working to shorten FPI onboarding to 30–60 days through standardised documentation, easing high-quality foreign entry without shifting the market’s centre of gravity away from domestic savings.
What it signals: Confidence in governance and earnings of new-age Indian companies; efficient capital recycling; deeper price discovery; and resilience against global risk-off environment.
Washington has imposed a $100,000 fee on new H-1B petitions. For India, this creates an opening to anchor more delivery at home, deepen capability, and reduce visa dependence. Build here, serve the world.
Relevant Context Alongside the Visa Fee Hike
Even in the face of disruptions, India’s growth held, policy stayed stable, factories kept adding capacity, infrastructure cut costs, and markets recycled capital. Together, that’s a shift from dependence to authority: more value created and captured in India, with financing deep enough to back it.
The next step is simple and hard: keep turning intent into capacity, and capacity into exports and earnings. Do that, and the compounding will do its work.
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