India's Business Giants Set to Triple Investment in Next Decade
Key Ideas
- Indian conglomerates to spend about $800 billion on growth in the next 10 years, focusing on new businesses like green hydrogen and clean energy.
- Key players like Vedanta, Tata, Adani, Reliance, and JSW planning $350 billion investments in sectors like aviation, EVs, and data centers.
- Some groups like Birla, Mahindra, Hero, and others to concentrate on conservative growth in existing businesses, expecting to invest $400-500 billion.
- Despite growth opportunities, there are risks related to execution and borrowing heavily on new technologies like green hydrogen.
S&P Global Ratings reported that India's major business groups are projected to increase their investment by nearly threefold in the next decade, with an estimated $800 billion to be spent on growth. A significant portion, around 40%, of this investment will be directed towards emerging sectors such as green hydrogen, clean energy, aviation, semiconductors, EVs, and data centers. Leading conglomerates like Vedanta, Tata, Adani, Reliance, and JSW are gearing up to inject $350 billion into these sectors. On the other hand, groups like Birla, Mahindra, ITC, and others are expected to maintain a focus on steady growth in their existing ventures, with plans to invest $400-500 billion. While there are vast growth prospects, risks loom large due to potential execution challenges and heavy reliance on unproven technologies like green hydrogen. S&P cautioned that as debt levels rise, firms must fortify their core operations to sustain credit standings, as any setbacks during the investment phase could impact credit metrics negatively.