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Jan 31, 2026
Viren S Doshi

Indian Capital Markets: The Fulcrum of India's Growth Story

Overview India's remarkable economic journey continues to gain momentum, with the Economic Survey 2025-26, tabled in Parliament on January 29, 2026, by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, painting a picture of resilience and structural strength amid global uncertainties. Projecting real GDP growth at 7.4% and Gross Value Added (GVA) growth at 7.3% for FY26 (based on First Advance Estimates), the survey emphasises domestic demand, fiscal discipline, and the deepening financialisation of household savings as key drivers. At the centre of this narrative stands India's capital markets—an increasingly digitised, inclusive, and efficient ecosystem that channels vast domestic resources into productive investments. With explosive retail participation, record resource mobilisation, and growing resilience against foreign capital volatility, the markets are poised to serve as the true fulcrum of India's growth story. Explosive Growth in Retail Participation The survey highlights a transformative surge in investor engagement. During FY26 (up to December 2025), 235 lakh (2.35 crore) new demat accounts were added, pushing the total beyond 21.6 crore (216 million). A landmark milestone was reached in September 2025 when unique investors crossed 12 crore (120 million), with nearly 25% being women—signalling greater gender inclusivity. This expansion extends beyond metros: the mutual fund industry reached 5.9 crore unique investors by December 2025, with 3.5 crore (as of November 2025) from non-tier-I and tier-II cities. Household financial savings have shifted decisively toward market-linked instruments—the share of equity and mutual funds in annual household savings rose from around 2% in FY12 to over 15.2% in FY25. Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) have been instrumental, with average monthly inflows surging sevenfold from under ₹4,000 crore in FY17 to over ₹28,000 crore in FY26 (April–November). Individual investors' ownership in equities climbed to 18.8% by September 2025, and household equity wealth grew by approximately ₹53 lakh crore between April 2020 and September 2025. These trends reflect a structural shift from traditional avenues like bank deposits (whose share fell from 58% in FY12 to 35% in FY25) toward equities and mutual funds, unlocking "huge domestic capital waiting to be further channelised. A Digitised, World-Class Ecosystem India's capital markets boast one of the most advanced, fully digitised systems globally—enabling instant account opening via Aadhaar-based e-KYC, Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-linked transfers, T+1 settlement cycle, and minimal transaction costs. Handling millions of accounts and high-frequency trades daily with full traceability and accessibility, few countries match this scale and efficiency for a large population. The United States and other developed markets have sophisticated infrastructure, but India's retail penetration in absolute numbers—over 120 million unique investors—surpasses many peers relative to its demographic size. Regulatory enhancements bolster this ecosystem. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has driven initiatives, including investor protection tools (SEBI Check, SEBI vs SCAM), Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) debt frameworks, municipal bond outreach, and electricity derivatives. The Securities Markets Code, 2025, consolidates key laws, while reforms like simplified bond issuance norms and governance for credit rating agencies further strengthen market integrity. Banking sector health supports this vibrancy, with Gross Non-Performing Assets (GNPA) ratios at multi-decadal lows (2.2% in September 2025) and credit growth accelerating to 14.5% year-on-year. Robust Capital Formation and Market Depth Primary markets have been a powerhouse: total resource mobilisation (equity + debt) reached ₹10.7 lakh crore in FY26 (up to December 2025). Over the past five years (FY22 to FY26 till December), ₹53 lakh crore was raised. India topped global Initial Public Offering (IPO) charts in recent periods, with FY26 (up to December 2025) volumes 20% higher than FY25 and amounts mobilised 10% higher, driven by strong retail demand and resilient domestic inflows. Market capitalisation of listed domestic companies stood around $5.3 trillion as of late 2025/early 2026, with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) featuring among the world's top exchanges. Capital markets expanded from 144% of GDP in CY 2017 to 175% in CY 2024, while total financial sector assets neared 187% of GDP in CY 2024. Resilience Amid Foreign Investor Volatility The Rise of Domestic Institutional Investors A remarkable development in India's capital markets is their growing resilience despite volatile and sometimes manipulative run-offs by Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs)—also referred to as Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs)—driven by global factors such as interest rate shifts, geopolitical tensions, and trade policies. Under the Modi Government, sustained structural reforms have fostered this stability. Key efforts include personal income tax cuts to boost disposable incomes and savings, Goods and Services Tax (GST) overhaul for simplified compliance, monetary policy easing by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to support liquidity and growth, receding inflation, and regulatory advancements by SEBI to enhance transparency, investor protection, and ease of doing business. These measures, combined with financial inclusion drives, digital infrastructure, and promotion of market-linked savings products, have channelled household funds into equities via mutual funds, insurance companies, and pension funds—collectively known as Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs). This has resulted in a structural shift: DIIs have emerged as consistent net buyers, offsetting FPI outflows. As of September 30, 2025, DIIs held a record 18.7% of NSE-listed equities (Q3 FY26), surpassing FPIs for the first time in Q4 FY25. In Q2 FY26, DII holdings reached 18.3%, while FPI holdings fell to 16.7%—a 13-year low. Mutual funds' share hit 10.9% in Q2 FY26, and the combined share of DIIs, retail investors, and High Net-Worth Individuals (HNIs) reached an all-time high of 27.8%. Inflows tell the story: DII inflows into equities in calendar year 2025 (CY25) hit a record $90.1 billion (highest ever), while FPIs recorded significant net outflows (e.g., ₹1.51 lakh crore in 2025 overall). Despite these FPI exits, domestic buying stabilised markets, with the Nifty 50 delivering approximately 10% returns in 2025. In FY26 (April-December 2025), FPIs showed mixed flows with modest net balance, but DIIs provided a strong buffer. This rise in domestic investment represents a paradigm shift, making Indian capital markets significantly less vulnerable to FPI/FII operations and more anchored in internal savings and confidence. Untapped Potential and Policy Imperatives India has immense scope to double or more its listed companies (currently around 6,000–7,000 unique across BSE and NSE) to 10,000–12,000+, by easing norms for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), startups, and family businesses to encourage listings and enhance liquidity while lowering capital costs. To further mobilise domestic savings, calibrated reductions in capital gains taxes (currently 12.5% long-term, 20% short-term post-2024 changes) could incentivise long-term holding. Mechanisms like a remittance tax on select outward flows could curb capital flight and boost reinvestment domestically. Rationalising taxes on debt instruments would encourage diversified portfolios. Redefining the Growth Story Traditional metrics like GDP are essential, but India's progress should increasingly be judged by capital market deliverables: expanding listed companies, rising market cap-to-GDP, deepening retail and domestic institutional participation, efficient funding for infrastructure and innovation, and inclusive wealth creation. The survey's data—record demat growth, surging SIPs, primary market mobilisation, household savings redirection, and DII-driven resilience—validates capital markets as central to sustaining high growth, stabilising against external shocks, and realising a $10 trillion+ economy. Conclusion As the Economic Survey 2025-26 affirms, India's digitised, resilient capital markets are channelling domestic savings into engines of growth. With targeted policy support to unlock trapped capital and foster deeper participation, they can truly become the fulcrum propelling India's ascent amid global fragmentation. The foundation is strong; the leverage lies in continued reforms and inclusion.

Jan 31, 2026
Vladimir Adityanaath

West Bengal: Samim Laskar’s Dangerous Politics of Mob Mobilisation in Baruipur

In an era where a single social media post can mobilise crowds faster than any street-corner speech, the line between free expression and reckless incitement has never been thinner. That line appears to have been deliberately blurred by Samim Laskar — a Facebook influencer with over 10,000 followers, a public speaker, and a current resident of Baruipur, West Bengal — through a pattern of online activity that raises serious questions about intent, responsibility, and public safety. On 27 January, Laskar uploaded a Facebook post announcing the formation of a “powerful resistance committee” in Baruipur, ostensibly to protect Muslims from alleged attacks and “communal sentiments” of Hindu organisations. The framing was stark, urgent, and alarmist [1]. Yet the claim collapses under even minimal scrutiny. There is no documentary evidence of any communally motivated attack against Muslims in Baruipur that would justify such a call to mobilisation. On the contrary, 2025 alone has seen at least two documented incidents of communal violence targeting Hindus, including the desecration of a Hindu temple in the same locality [2][3]. In other words, the empirical record runs directly opposite to the narrative Laskar sought to popularise. From Narrative to Network What makes this post especially concerning is not merely its content, but its reception. The post attracted 785 likes and 286 comments, many expressing enthusiasm for participation. At least four individuals publicly shared their phone numbers in the comments, signalling readiness for offline coordination. This is no longer passive opinion-sharing but early architecture of mobilisation built on an unsubstantiated grievance. When influential figures invoke the language of “resistance” without evidence of threat, they do not protect communities but manufacture fear, the most combustible political resource of all. A Pattern, Not an Isolated Post Laskar’s January 27 post does not exist in isolation. His social media history reveals a consistent pattern of provocative, misleading, and factually false claims, often aligned with radical Islamist talking points. On 30th December, he uploaded posts expressing grief over the death of Abu Ubaida, spokesperson of the Al-Qassam Brigades, an organisation designated as terrorist by the European Union, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Paraguay, Japan, Ecuador and Switzerland. While expressions of opinion are legally protected, public mourning for a spokesperson of a listed terrorist outfit is not politically neutral signals ideological sympathy that should alarm any society committed to constitutional order [4]. In another instance, Laskar mocked the decades-long persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh, framing it with cynical whataboutery. He sarcastically questioned whether other nations would ban Indian cricketers over atrocities against minority Hindus, while sidestepping the documented realities of repeated statements by senior Bangladeshi politicians, military figures and public servants that threaten Bharat’s territorial integrity alongside persistent violence and dispossession faced by indigenous Hindu communities. This denial normalises persecution elsewhere and feeds into the manufacture of grievance narratives at home [5]. Fake Atrocities, Real Consequences Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of Laskar’s activity is his repeated peddling of demonstrably false atrocity narratives. On 24 January, he claimed that a 20-year-old Muslim woman Zakiya, had been gang-raped and murdered by so-called “Hindutvawaadi” activists. The allegation was incendiary and false. Multiple independent third-party fact-checkers reviewed the claim and flagged it as fake. Yet by the time corrections circulate, the damage is already done. False rape-and-murder narratives have a well-documented history of triggering riots, lynchings, and retaliatory violence in India [6]. This was not an aberration. In November, Laskar attempted to revive the long-debunked “breast tax” myth of Kerala, a fabrication repeatedly rejected by serious historians. In another post, he falsely claimed that Haji Mohammad Mohsin established Bengal’s first free educational institution and concluded without logic or evidence that Shudras and Dalits should therefore not worship Saraswati. This is not only historically illiterate, but socially poisonous. All-inclusive educational institutions in Bengal predate Islamic rule by at least four centuries, rooted in ancient and medieval Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions [7]. Condoning Violence, Normalising Intimidation The danger of Laskar’s online conduct is not limited to misinformation alone, but it also extends to the open normalisation of violence against dissenting voices. On 16 January, he uploaded a post explicitly condoning violence against journalists of Republic TV Bangla. Regardless of one’s opinion of the channel’s editorial line, endorsing violence against journalists strikes at the core of democratic norms. It signals a willingness to replace debate with intimidation and disagreement with physical coercion, an escalation that no civil society can afford to ignore. Why This Matters What emerges is a clear pattern: a) Invent a threat where none exists. b) Invoke identity-based fear to justify “resistance”. c) Spread false atrocity stories to inflame passions. d) Undermine historical truth to delegitimise indigenous traditions. e) Signal ideological proximity to extremist narratives while enjoying the megaphone of social media. Individuals like Samim Laskar shape emotional climates. When such influence is exercised irresponsibly, it ceases to be a free-speech question alone and becomes a public-order concern. Conclusion: A Warning, Not a Witch-Hunt This is not an argument for censorship, nor a call to criminalise dissent. It is a warning about the real-world consequences of organised misinformation, especially when amplified by social platforms and informal networks that lend legitimacy without accountability. Institutions like Al-Ameen Memorial Minority College and society at large must reflect on the environments they enable. When educational spaces produce or tolerate habitual misinformation, communal provocation and ideological radicalisation, they risk becoming incubators of conflict rather than centres of learning. History shows that communal violence rarely begins with weapons. It begins with stories told loudly, repeatedly and by people who understand exactly how fear can be converted into power. When lies are organised, and grievance is professionalised, violence does not arrive as an accident but as a plan. References: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FJjQrbb8V/ https://hindupost.in/news/west-bengal-islamist-attacks-shitala-mata-murti-in-baruipur-burned-the-murti-after-vandalism/ https://www.hinduphobiatracker.org/app/case/aa4aea7 https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1Gu5srfurp/ https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1MSUkwy5yZ/ https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AcBmZDfmh/ https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17bpXuVDhg/