Overseas capital has lengthy served as a spine for nationwide improvement — fueling infrastructure, advancing expertise, and plugging funding gaps that home financial savings alone can’t fill. From railways to renewable power, it underwrites the ambitions that reshape economies. But, in India, this monetary lifeline usually finds itself caught in a cultural crossfire.
Highlighting this paradox, Akshat Shrivastava, Founder and CEO of Knowledge Hatch, identified that whereas international locations worldwide welcome overseas capital to construct nationwide wealth, Indians uniquely stigmatise it.
In a submit on X (previously Twitter), Shrivastava wrote, “Each nation on earth obtained wealthy by bringing overseas wealth.
- UK after they looted India
- Spain and Portugal after they had been ship merchants
- US: when it exported US$ to the world
- Even China: it’s a web exporter and brings overseas wealth.
It’s only Indians, who think about overseas capital as impure. We want mass schooling.”
His submit sparked a flurry of responses, with customers echoing issues over India’s reluctance to embrace world capital.
One person identified, “Each wealthy nation pulled in overseas capital first, then preached self-reliance later. Some numbers: UK: Extracted an estimated $45T from India (per Utsa Patnaik). China: Attracted $1T+ in FDI since Nineteen Nineties. US: Web $19T overseas funding in Treasuries, equities, startups. In the meantime in India:. Web FDI influx in FY24? Simply $10 billion. Web FPI fairness flows in FY24? Damaging. We romanticise swadeshi, whereas others weaponize capital flows. Overseas cash builds roads, factories, semiconductors, not simply inventory costs.”
One other added, “Undecided it is about purity, appears extra like a mixture of post-colonial trauma + misplaced self-reliance. We glorified ‘swadeshi’ so arduous that ‘overseas capital’ grew to become synonymous with promoting out. However the irony is that the majority of our ‘homegrown unicorns’ are already backed by world VC cash. We don’t want simply mass schooling, we want mindset rewiring.”
A 3rd voice warned of the sensible dangers: “Persons are getting carried away with SIP influx charts on YouTube. Simply because DIIs have majority stake than FIIs doesn’t imply we are able to afford to ‘kick out’ FIIs. That’s delusional. India’s market cap is $4 trillion. FIIs maintain $700-800 billion in equities plus a giant chunk in bonds. After they pulled out simply $10 billion between October and January, the rupee slid. Now think about if that exit was bigger. You don’t get a correction — you get a collapse. We nonetheless import greater than we export. To settle imports, we pay in {dollars}, not rupees. If overseas capital — through FII or FDI — doesn’t are available in, you’re left promoting rupees to purchase {dollars}, and meaning one factor: forex depreciation. Chasing them away with taxes or laws is like blocking your personal oxygen provide. Overseas capital isn’t optionally available — it’s the financial norm.”
