India calling

Lanka India Business Association (LIBA) is hosting its first ever event in Colombo on 6 August  2026. It’s called “India calling”.

A friend asked me with a smile “ who is India calling”? And why ? It made me think of the entire logic of the name. And how relevant it is for the proposed event, which I as president am spearheading fully supported by the LiBA Governing Council.

I realised that in reality India was not calling anybody. Everybody has been calling India recently. Be it Singapore, UK, NZ, EU or even the UAE- all these countries have called, engaged, negotiated and signed or are in the process of signing  significant trade and business agreements with India. 

From 2012 to 2021 not a single  FTA was signed by India. And in the past 24 months India has signed 5 agreements and are looking at bilateral agreements with countries in South America, Africa and the South East Asian bloc. 

Why this sudden flurry of trade agreements? And why such a demand for the Indian market? 

The numbers

Some often expressed numbers speak for itself - India is now the most populous country in the world. Over the past decade or so India’s economy has grown relentlessly at a pace far higher than any other economy in the world. Significant numbers of Indians who previously experienced abject poverty are now in the safe zone- there is unprecedented access to basic health, sanitation, housing and food for large numbers of previously deprived Indians. The Digital Public Infrastructure or DPI - the stack system that uses a unique digital identity plus a bank account and a mobile number to activate purchases creates unprecedented convenience but above all it gives millions access to direct payments from the state. The numbers are staggering - from a 147 million accounts in India, in 2015, it has grown to 577 million accounts in March 2026, the capital mobilised in these accounts have gone from $ 2 billion in 2015 to $32 billion in 2026. 

India’s middle class of 200-300 million people today hold close to $ 4 trillion of wealth and is projected to be 700 million people in 2035, with a total wealth base of $14-18 trillion.

Beyond the numbers

India is the world’s largest democracy with over a billion people eligible to vote. Its stable system ensures reasonable continuity of policy and the irreversible nature of its market friendly policies makes investors confident of their investments 

India is one of the countries at the vanguard of conversion from fossil fuels to green energy- 70% of all its energy is likely to be green by 2037. These make  India a responsible and ethical country in terms of its contribution to reducing the carbon footprint 

With the relentless movement of wealth from the west to the east many ‘ rich’ countries have envisioned the future and hedged their bets on the India growth story. A stable democracy, a responsible progressive country empowering its people and youth with a commitment to opening its markets, India shares many common values with the developed west. Thus there is an energetic interest in these developed economies in doing trade agreements with India. These countries want access to the large market and want to benefit from the growing middle class with significant purchasing power. And a country that shares common values with it. 

And for India which earlier was very inward-focussed creating value through domestic consumption, the realisation that it needs to be able to get access to bigger markets to sustain protracted growth has resulted in the move to aggressively pursue these agreements 

Now in the context of India and Sri Lanka. The two country’s share a very close relationship - perhaps its best ever. India has been there for Sri Lanka at its time of greatest need - in the past 6 years, be it during the pandemic, or during the economic crisis or during cyclone Ditwah, India has stepped up-first, fast and in scale. India accounts for the highest number of tourists into Sri Lanka and by some accounts remains the single largest investor into the country. 

Immense potential 

Yet, given that Sri Lanka is just 30 kms away from India and that major capitals in South India (the fastest growing markets in India) are closer to Colombo than they are to Delhi, the relationship holds immense potential for both countries. Especially from the Sri Lankan context - an opportunity to be a hub for products and services that fulfills the needs of the South Indian market, a net exporter of electricity to South India (with its ever increasing energy needs). 

Thirty million Indians are travelling around the world yet despite being the highest numbers only 450,000 Indians are travelling to Sri Lanka. Indians invested over $30 billion globally, yet only $1 billion or so finds its way into Sri Lanka. 

From an Indian perspective Sri Lanka is not big enough as a market to provide fuel to its growth engine. But Sri Lanka with its wonderful location as a potential new pathway of trade between the west and India to the east, India should look at this economic relationship not through the hard lens of size and scale but through the soft sense of proximity and its promise as a hub 

If a win-win trade agreement is reached - one that does not attempt to override Sri Lankan red lines, then both countries can benefit from this shared prosperity 

Sri Lanka can potentially experience a significant economic transformation as a result. And India would gain unprecedented goodwill in the Emerald Isle. 

So yeah, India is calling - with its relentless growth and predicted bright economic future, a call to Sri Lanka to utilise its proximity to this growing giant - to transform the economic fortunes of its own people. 

So the India Calling forum on 6 August 2006 at the Taj Samudra Colombo will discuss at length and in depth, the opportunity that is India and one can hear different perspectives from a cross section of folks in Sri Lanka- the young, the experienced, the leaders, the investors and find out how they think this opportunity should be exploited and how they want to further enhance the India Sri Lanka economic relationship. 

Let’s start having this conversation in earnest. Before the calling fades and is forgotten. That could be an epic loss for both countries. 

Tickets to the event can be obtained on https://indiacalling.rush.lk

 (The author is the President of Lanka India Business Association and can be reached on [email protected])