Speaking on CNBC on Thursday, Ashok Hinduja explained: “We see a recession coming in the US, a recession coming in the UK, Europe, problems in China, [a] problem in Southeast Asia under China-Taiwan fear. So looking at the overall scene, we focus now [on] India as an emerging market”.

Fund manager says bear market will get ‘bad’ — but says he’s not ‘freaking out’ The Hinduja Group is headquartered in India, although it has businesses in many industrial sectors and has a presence in nearly 40 countries, including the United Kingdom, Switzerland and the United States. Its flagship is Ashok Leyland, one of India’s leading commercial vehicle manufacturers. “India, politically, is well settled,” the president told CNBC’s Tanvir Gill. “Credit goes to our prime minister,” he said, referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “He has handled, in the current situation, relations with the US, with Europe, with Russia, with China — although there were problems with China, but he handled it well, it’s under control.” Tensions between India and China escalated in 2020 after their troops clashed on a shared border and remain tense. More recently, Western countries have criticized India for increasing purchases of Russian oil as the country’s invasion of Ukraine continues. Workers unload goods from a truck in the main market area in Gandhidham, India. India is a big market and the “best bet” in the global economy, said Ashok Hinduja, president of Hinduja Group, India. Prasanth Viswanathan Bloomberg | Getty Images Asked whether rising interest rates and the risk of a recession in the United States would affect India, Hinduja said the impact would be somewhat limited. He pointed out that US and European stock markets are lower this year, while Indian stocks have been more resilient. The S&P 500 and pan-European Stoxx 600 are down more than 17% this year. India’s Nifty 50 rose about 1%.

Economic growth is declining

Hinduja claimed that the government in India is tackling corruption and said it will invest in infrastructure ahead of elections scheduled before May 2024. “Infrastructure spending will be there, economic growth will come, so we see, looking at the world stage, India is today [the] the best bet,” he said. India’s year-over-year economic growth bubbled in 2022, although its pace of growth appears to have slowed more recently. Last week, the OECD said that on a quarterly basis, India’s GDP growth in the second quarter was the second worst among the G-20 group of leading rich and developing countries. Earlier this month, Goldman Sachs cut its full-year forecast for India’s gross domestic product growth from 7.6% to 7%.

Foreign investment

According to a report by India’s finance ministry, the country received $17.3 billion in foreign direct investment in the first quarter, putting it ahead of emerging peers Indonesia and Argentina, but behind countries such as Brazil and Mexico . China’s foreign direct investment surpassed India’s at 101.9 billion in the same period, the report said. In the second quarter, India’s foreign investment fell to $16.1 billion, the ministry said.