Why India’s economic future depends on companies that think global

When we think about India’s next phase of growth, we often think of smart factories, data centres, and highways. However, there is another story quietly unfolding. Indian companies are stepping onto the global stage, and that is one of the most powerful levers we have for economic growth.

Today, more than 1,000 Indian multinational enterprises operate globally across technology, pharma, auto and energy, and infrastructure. Our exports contributed 21-22% to India’s GDP last year, underlying a simple truth: global ambition is no longer peripheral to growth but is becoming central to India’s economic strategy.

This is not accidental. It reflects two decades of investments made in engineering talent, digital systems, and manufacturing supply chains. This has created the base with which Indian firms today can proudly complete globally on quality, reliability and scale.

Design products for a global customer from Day 1

When Jensen-Huang, the Co-founder of Nvidia, founded the company, he didn’t think about building a graphic card company for America but a computing company for the world. That distinction — designing for global relevance from day 1 — is what separates enduring champions from local.

R&D is the hardest path – but the only sustainable one

Every established leader today talks about investing in R&D even when the payoff is years away. For Indian businesses, this means building product capability and not just assembly, owning intellectual property, and creating the engineering depth with the right task force.

Yes, R&D is expensive, and it slows short-term margins, but in the long term it gives you the ability to change your product as per market needs with agility.

That’s not all. This can be the sole reason that in the future you can serve multiple markets and move up the value chain. In fact, every company, regardless of the sector, is becoming a technology company, which is impossible to do if there are no sustained investments in R&D.

The US, Germany, and China, which dominate technology hubs globally, didn’t outsource their innovation. They built it.

Make in India must begin at the design table

We are living in a multi-polar world with fractured supply chains. What do you think will come to businesses’ rescue in situations like earth metal supply restraint by China? Building and nurturing local supply chains is the only way to build a resilient business and offer long-term supply and cost stability, and a unique strategic autonomy.

Global companies strengthen the Indian economy

When Indian companies go global, they take India with them. World Bank research shows that such companies create higher paying jobs, invest 2x in R&D, bring back dollar revenues and global customer standards, and enhance national brand equity.

These factors contribute to currency stability and a more resilient GDP growth. As Indian firms expand across borders, the nation gains economic resilience and bargaining power to negotiate bilateral deals, global partnerships and trade agreements from a position of strength.

What India must do to build for the world

Having watched multiple enterprises grow over decades, I believe the next phase of growth will depend less on scale but more on conviction.

For decades, our default setting has been to look outwards for technology and capital access and inwards for scale. We assume innovation will come from abroad and capital will flow with it. India is a global powerhouse, home to the world’s third largest startup ecosystem of over 100 unicorns and 180,000 start-ups.

Entrepreneurial energy is not our constraint. We need trust in our capabilities. The next phase of growth requires building technology at home, allowing global capital to stack on top of Indian innovation rather than the other way round. It requires celebrating Indian companies operating globally more than global brands operating in India. We need to treat global enterprises from India as national assets.

Leveraging the Indian market

India must also rethink how it uses the power of its own market. The world needs access to Indian consumers, supply chains, and talent. This gives India enormous leverage. But too often, this leverage is exchanged for short-term wins — quick investments, fast imports, immediate scale without focus on building a domestic ecosystem.

Our mantra should be to use market access to strengthen local manufacturing and deepening technology. Else, India risks becoming the largest consumption base without becoming a global producer.

Focus is equally important. No country can become globally competitive in everything. India must identify five to 10 areas where it has natural advantages — energy, digital systems, manufacturing, life sciences — and commit to building at least three of them. This warrants a scenario where there is aligned policy, patient capital and institutional support by clearly defining them as national priorities.

India stands at a crossroad, poised to either remain a significant market for global companies or transform into a hub that innovates and exports to the world. The path forward hinges on prioritizing R&D, manufacturing, capital allocation, and scaling domestic capabilities, underpinned by a strong self-belief in its global potential.

Girish Tanti is Co-founder & Vice Chairman, Suzlon Group, and Chairman, CII Renewable Energy National Committee & Manufacturing Council