Growth, Partnership, and Outreach

Story 1

India Holds Its Lead as the World's Fastest-Growing Big Economy

India's economy grew 7.8% year-on-year in the April-to-June quarter, according to government data released this week, comfortably beating the Reserve Bank of India's own forecast of 7%. Nominal GDP for the quarter came in at ₹88.27 lakh crore (approx. US$925 billion). The figure keeps India ahead of every other major economy in growth terms, a position it has held for several years running.

For readers unfamiliar with how India tracks its economy: the country's financial year runs from April to March. Growth is measured against the same quarter a year earlier, and the number beat most private-sector forecasts, which had clustered closer to 7%.

The growth was not evenly spread. Manufacturing and investment activity performed strongly, while mining output actually contracted in real terms even as its nominal value rose sharply, driven by a spike in crude oil and gas prices linked to the conflict in the Middle East. That divergence between real and nominal figures is one reason the number has triggered debate at home.

That debate matters for accuracy. Earlier this year, India's statistics office revised the base year used to calculate GDP, from 2011-12 to 2022-23 – a routine technical exercise, but one that also revised down the comparison figure for last year's equivalent quarter. A former finance secretary argued that, measured against the old, unrevised base, growth this quarter would look far weaker, closer to 2.6% in nominal terms. Government economists and independent analysts, including from the State Bank of India, have pushed back, arguing the comparison is not valid because the two series use different methodologies and cannot be set side by side. The dispute remains unresolved and is likely to continue as revisions are finalised over the coming months.

Growth of this scale, sustained over multiple quarters, is part of why India has become the destination of choice for a growing share of global manufacturing investment and portfolio capital. A slowdown or a credibility problem with the data would ripple through currency markets, bond yields and corporate investment decisions well beyond India's borders. Equally, the presence of open, public argument over how the number is calculated is itself a sign of a functioning, transparent statistical debate – not something governments in every fast-growing economy tolerate.

For international businesses and investors, the practical takeaway is that India's consumption and investment engines are still running, even against a backdrop of global tariff uncertainty and regional conflict. Whether the true underlying pace is closer to 7.8% or somewhat lower, the direction, resilience, and scale of the Indian economy remain difficult for the rest of the world to ignore.

Story 2

India's Stock Exchange Clears the Path for the Country's Largest-Ever IPO

On 4 September, India's markets regulator, Sebi, cleared the National Stock Exchange (NSE) to proceed with a public listing worth an estimated ₹30,000 crore (approx. US$3.1 billion) – set to overtake Hyundai Motor India's ₹27,870 crore offering from 2024 as the largest initial public offering in Indian history.

For readers unfamiliar with Indian market structure: the NSE is not a company that trades shares for profit in the way a listed bank might. It is the exchange itself – the platform on which the vast majority of Indian stock and derivatives trading happens. Its own shares, until now, were only available through informal, unlisted trading, at prices implying a valuation of roughly ₹4.8 lakh crore, or around US$50 billion.

The path here has been unusually long. NSE first attempted to list in 2016, but its plans were derailed for a decade by regulatory investigations into so-called "co-location" and "dark fibre" cases – allegations that certain brokers received unfair early access to trading data between 2014 and 2015, allowing them illegal gains. That dispute was only resolved this July, when Sebi accepted a settlement payment of ₹1,491 crore from the exchange, clearing the final obstacle to a listing.

In the offer itself, existing shareholders – rather than the exchange raising fresh capital – plan to sell close to 15 crore shares. The sellers include some recognisably international names: the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Singapore-linked investment vehicles are among those offloading stakes, alongside Indian institutions such as the State Bank of India group and several state-owned insurers. Market sources expect the offer to launch in the second half of September.

A listing of this scale tests the depth of Indian and global institutional demand for Indian equities at a moment when international capital is already flowing into the country in record volumes. It also gives international investors, for the first time, direct equity exposure to the infrastructure of Indian capital markets itself, rather than only to companies that trade on it. For a market long criticised for opacity in its early years, resolving a decade-old integrity dispute through settlement, and then proceeding to a transparent public listing, is a meaningful signal of institutional accountability – the kind global fund managers weigh carefully before committing capital.

The listing will be closely watched as a bellwether for whether India's market infrastructure can absorb further large offerings without volatility, at a time when several other big-ticket Indian IPOs are also queued for the coming months.

Story 3

ISRO Ends Its Toughest Stretch With a Landmark Satellite Launch

Early on the morning of 4 September, India's space agency ISRO successfully launched its GSLV-F17 rocket carrying EOS-05, the country's first satellite designed specifically for geosynchronous orbit imaging – closing out what had been one of the most difficult periods in the agency's recent history.

For international readers unfamiliar with Indian space terminology: a geosynchronous orbit sits roughly 36,000 kilometres above Earth, far higher than the low-earth orbits most observation satellites use. A satellite there stays fixed relative to a point on Earth's surface, allowing continuous, gap-free monitoring of the same region – valuable for tracking fast-moving events like floods, storms or forest fires in real time, rather than waiting for a satellite to pass overhead again.

This was ISRO's first launch since January, following a run of setbacks: three of the six missions the agency launched across 2025 and 2026 failed to reach their intended orbits. The GSLV rocket itself has a chequered history – it suffered four failures over the years, mostly linked to the cryogenic engine that powers its final stage, and was once nicknamed the "naughty boy" of India's launch fleet. Friday's mission had actually been ready since February, but was held back for extra rounds of testing to avoid another failure.

The launch went smoothly. The rocket deposited the 2,360-kilogram satellite – the heaviest payload GSLV has carried – into a transfer orbit roughly 18 minutes after lift-off, from where it will manoeuvre itself into its final geosynchronous position over the coming days. ISRO chairman V Narayanan confirmed all satellite systems, including its solar panels, were functioning normally.

EOS-05 extends India's independent capability to monitor its own agriculture, forests, coastlines and disaster zones without relying on foreign satellite data – a capability with clear civilian and defence applications. Industry figures also highlighted a less visible but important dimension: the launch reflects a deepening partnership between ISRO and India's private space sector, whose components and expertise increasingly underpin national missions. As that ecosystem matures, it opens the door to more commercial participation, including potential opportunities for international space and geospatial companies looking to partner with, rather than simply compete against, Indian firms.

For a space programme that had spent much of the past two years managing setbacks and enforced caution, this launch is a credible, verified recovery – not just a symbolic one, but proof that a fixed technical problem stayed fixed.

Story 4

India and Belgium Sign a Defence Pact Spanning Tanks, Rockets, and Sea Mines

Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever made his first visit to India this week since taking office in February 2025, and it produced one of the more substantial European defence-industrial agreements India has signed this year – spanning ammunition manufacturing, naval mine-clearance technology, drones, and battle tank components.

Belgian Defence and Foreign Trade Minister Theo Francken, who accompanied De Wever alongside at least 15 Belgian companies, met his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh to sign a Letter of Intent establishing a structural framework for military cooperation: officer exchanges, joint research, seminars and exercises. Francken was explicit about the strategic logic, describing India as "a rapidly growing economy and a major military power in the Indo-Pacific", strategically positioned along vital trade routes at a moment when European and Asian security are, in his words, increasingly interconnected.

Several concrete industrial deals followed. Belgian firm New Lachaussée will supply a production line in India capable of manufacturing roughly 100 million ammunition rounds annually, a project worth €50 million (approx. US$54 million). Exail Belgium will provide autonomous mine-detection technology for a fleet of Indian naval vessels being built by Larsen & Toubro – a programme that could eventually expand to 59 ships. Thales Belgium will begin assembling its 70mm rockets in India in partnership with Kalyani Strategic Systems, with the first India-made rocket expected in early 2027. Belgian sensor and optics firms are also extending decades-old cooperation on India's Arjun battle tank and air-defence systems.

For readers unfamiliar with the context: India has been steadily reducing its historical dependence on Russian-made military hardware, and building domestic manufacturing capacity – under a broader "Make in India" defence policy – by partnering with a widening circle of countries, from France to Belgium to South Korea. Belgium's interest in India as a manufacturing base, rather than simply a customer, is a marker of that shift.

For European defence firms navigating supply shortages linked to the war in Ukraine and rising demand, India offers manufacturing scale and a growing domestic market. For India, it diversifies defence-industrial partnerships and builds indigenous capacity in sensitive technologies such as underwater robotics and mine countermeasures – capabilities relevant to protecting undersea data cables and ports, not just naval warfare. Francken's own framing – that the deals bring "expertise, contracts and jobs" back to Belgium – is a useful reminder that these partnerships are commercially, not just diplomatically, motivated on both sides, which is precisely what gives them durability.

Story 5

India Becomes the First Country to Deliver Aid After Nepal's Deadly Floods

When flash floods tore through the Nepal-Tibet border region on 26 August, killing over a thousand people and leaving hundreds missing, India became the first country in the world to physically deliver disaster relief – and this week saw that response escalate substantially, with a fourth and fifth Indian Air Force relief flight, more than 62 tonnes of aid delivered, and specialist rescue teams deployed on the ground.

For international readers unfamiliar with the region: the floods struck along the Bhote Koshi river system near the Nepal-China border, an area with hydropower construction sites where hundreds of workers were trapped in tunnels. The disaster is one of the deadliest in Nepal's recent history, and rescue operations were still ongoing at the time of writing, with an estimated 275 Indian nationals among those unaccounted for.

India's response began within hours of the disaster, with the first Indian Air Force C-130J transport aircraft carrying 10 tonnes of relief material departing less than half a day after the floods hit. By this week, that had grown into a sustained air-and-land operation: further flights carried tunnel-rescue specialists, forensic teams, modular bridging equipment and medical supplies, with the fourth relief flight confirming 108 Indian nationals rescued and a fifth flight adding an 11-member specialist team and 5.5 tonnes of medical supplies. India's Ministry of External Affairs also coordinated closely with Nepali authorities on ground operations throughout.

Rapid, credible disaster response capacity is not something that can be manufactured on demand – it depends on standing military logistics, trained personnel, and functioning bilateral relationships built up over years. India's ability to be the first nation, ahead of larger global powers, to get aircraft, equipment and specialists into a neighbouring disaster zone within hours is a genuine demonstration of institutional readiness and regional leadership.

It also matters for how India is perceived across South Asia, a region where trust in India's intentions is not automatic and is shaped heavily by how it behaves during moments of crisis rather than during diplomatic set-pieces. None of this diminishes the scale of Nepal's loss, which remains the central story of this disaster. But India's response – sustained over more than a week, expanding rather than tapering off, and coordinated rather than symbolic – is a legitimate and separate story about capability, one with implications for how India is likely to be called upon, and how it is likely to respond, the next time a crisis strikes its neighbourhood.