India has quietly unveiled one of its most consequential financial reforms in years. By exempting Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS)—often called the banker to the world’s central banks—from taxes on investments in Indian government securities, Delhi is signalling a new strategy.
It is not simply about supporting the rupee. Instead, it is about India deliberately attracting long-term, patient capital to finance its 2047 ambitions while strengthening its strategic autonomy.
In this episode of Capital Calculus, StratNewsGlobal.Tech spoke with development finance expert and former Asian Development Bank official Ajay Sagar about India’s evolving capital market strategy, Project Utkarsh, sovereign wealth funds, the future of the rupee, and why the quality of capital matters more than its quantity.
Topics Discussed
- Why India exempted FIIs and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) from taxes on Government Securities;
- Why this reform is about more than supporting the rupee;
- RBI’s plans to internationalise of the Indian rupee;
- Why India wants patient, long-term foreign capital instead of volatile portfolio flows;
- How deeper bond markets can finance India’s Viksit Bharat 2047 ambitions ;
- The strategic importance of the Bank for International Settlements—the “banker of central banks”;
- The role of sovereign wealth funds and central bank reserves in India’s capital markets;
- Sovereign Green Bonds and financing India’s energy transition;
- India’s digital public infrastructure, UPI and BIS Project-Nexus to facilitate cross-border payments;
- Why the quality of foreign capital matters more than the quantity;
- How capital market reforms can strengthen India’s strategic autonomy.
