Why India First-time visitors to India usually expect the Taj Mahal and the traffic. Few are ready for how much of the economy now runs on a phone, or how fast factories, power plants and labs are going up. For a business school or a university class, that makes India one of the most useful places in the world to study right now. These are the six shifts we build most of our programs around, with a few numbers from our Field Notes and the places where your group can see each one.
01

Digital public infrastructure

A little over ten years ago, a large share of Indians had no bank account and paid for nearly everything in cash. The government then built the plumbing itself: a free bank account for anyone who wanted one, a national ID, and a payments network that any bank or app could plug into. Private companies built on top of it. Today the vegetable seller on the corner is as likely to show you a QR code as ask for cash.

22.6bnUPI transactionsin a single month, March 2026
586mJan Dhan accountsas of July 2026
7.8mquick commerce orders a dayacross the sector, 2026
What your group takes awayIt is a strong case for anyone studying fintech, retail or public policy, and it usually starts a good argument about why other countries haven’t copied it.

On the mapAnywhere in India · Mumbai · Bengaluru

Field NotesJan Dhan (financial inclusion) · Unified Payments Interface (UPI) · Quick commerce · Household savings

02

Manufacturing moves to India

For years, global companies talked about China plus one. More and more often, the plus one is India. Phones for export are assembled around Hosur, an hour from Bengaluru. India makes a large share of the world’s generic medicines, and its defence industry now builds at home much of what it used to import.

$21bniPhone exportsyear to March 2026, from near zero four years earlier
$31.1bnpharmaceutical exportsyear to March 2026, to more than 200 countries
$18.5bndefence productionyear to March 2026, a record
What your group takes awayWhat it really takes to move production to a new country: suppliers, skills, incentives, and a fair amount of patience.

On the mapBengaluru · Ahmedabad & GIFT City · Hyderabad · Chennai

Field NotesChina+1 · Defence and aerospace · Pharmacy of the world

03

Talent, startups and AI

Global companies once sent India their back-office work. Many now run core engineering and product teams from Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune. India also has one of the biggest startup scenes in the world, and people here take up new technology quickly, often faster than it gets built at home.

1,800+global capability centres (GCCs)employing close to 2m people
100+unicornsthe third-largest startup ecosystem
100mweekly ChatGPT userssecond only to the US
What your group takes awayWhere innovation happens inside a global company, how a talent market this size works, and why adoption can run ahead of invention.

On the mapBengaluru · Hyderabad · Pune · Madurai

Field NotesGlobal capability centres · Startups and unicorns · Artificial intelligence · Jugaad (frugal innovation)

04

The energy transition

India reached its target for clean power capacity five years early. Coal still produces most of the electricity people actually use. Both are true, and the tension between them is the story. On the roads, the shift to electric is happening on scooters, auto-rickshaws and buses well before private cars.

>50%of installed capacityis non-fossil, target met 5 years early
74%of electricity generatedstill came from coal in 2025
30 GWKhavda renewable complexroughly 35% commissioned
What your group takes awayHow a country cuts emissions while its demand for energy is still climbing, and which business models are making money along the way.

On the mapJamnagar & Kutch · Andhra Pradesh · Mumbai · Anywhere in India

Field NotesCorporate houses and clean energy · Electric mobility · Battery swapping · Green hydrogen · Climate and a fair transition

05

Society and livelihoods

Close to half of India’s workers still earn a living from farming. More women are in paid work than a few years ago, and a public scheme now covers hospital bills for around half a billion people. None of this shows up in a stock index, but it sits behind almost every business decision made here.

46%of the workforceworks in farming (official labour survey, 2023 to 2024)
41.7%of women in the labour forceup from 23.3% in 2017 to 2018
~500mpeople with public hospital coverup to ₹5 lakh (about $5,200) per family a year
What your group takes awayWhat growth looks like for most Indians, and why policy here so often starts with livelihoods.

On the mapPunjab & Haryana · Madhya Pradesh · Chennai

Field NotesAgriculture and minimum support prices · Women and work · The health system

06

India’s place in the world

India buys oil from Russia, is helping plan a trade corridor to the Gulf and Europe, sits in BRICS, and works closely with the US on technology. It does not pick a side, and it has become very good at not picking one.

21%of India’s crude oil from Russiaup from about 1% before the war
8governments behind the trade corridor planIndia, US, European Union, Italy, France, Germany, UAE, Saudi Arabia
11BRICS membersfive until 2024, plus 10 partner countries
What your group takes awayHow a large country handles the US, Europe, Russia and the Global South at the same time, and what that means for companies that trade with it.

On the mapNew Delhi · Jamnagar & Kutch · Ahmedabad & GIFT City

Field NotesMulti-alignment · India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) · BRICS

Pick a shift and build a program around it

Any of these can be the backbone of a program, with company visits, meetings with policymakers and readings built around it. Tell us which one your group is most curious about.

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