‘Gross violation’ of agreement, says Foreign Secretary

“If we look at the market reaction to this conflict, it was fairly moderate. There was always this hope that at some point in time, wise sense will prevail. I believe, with this understanding, the investors will go back to basics, looking at fundamentals rather than geopolitical risk, obviously, this will give a lot of confidence to investors.

The image of India, after this episode, will be on the higher side. The treaty which we have with the UK is a win-win situation. It does give opportunity for our sectors, like textiles, electronics and other electrical components kind of things to go and capture the UK market. If this UK FTA is a harbinger of the FTA being negotiated with the European Union and the US, then I believe there is a serious opportunity for India to take full advantage of the China Plus One opportunity.

The second thing, in a lighter way, there were investors who probably shorted the Indian market or who were worried about this conflict getting wider. Now they will probably feel the same pain which Pakistan is feeling as they have to enter a rising market. For an investor, two things matter: growth and governance.

Undoubtedly, with this episode and the UK FTA, our earnings growth prospect improves, governance also kind of gets re-rated thanks to the mature handling. So overall, I believe India is now taking a notch up on investors’ radar.”