, Columnist
India’s Banks Will Lend. Will Tycoons Borrow?
The new RBI governor has opened the taps wide for project finance. Yet there may be few takers.
The Adani Group plans capital expenditure between $15 billion and $20 billion a year over the next five years.
Photographer: Indranil Aditya/BloombergThere’s plenty of talk about how India’s 600-million-strong workforce gives it a unique edge in the US-China spat over trade and technology. But to be the world’s next factory, the most-populous nation will need a strong domestic investment impulse.
The data don’t show any evidence of that. Nor does the authorities’ response inspire confidence. When it comes to large, long-gestation projects, a handful of tycoons will do the heavy-lifting, and it will take more than cheaper borrowing costs to sway their decisions.