Some perceptions stay around long after reality has moved on.
I was reminded of this recently in conversations with several European companies considering entry into India. Logistics and supply-chain questions came up, as expected. But often the discussion shifted underneath those topics into something more fundamental — whether India is really ready, whether plans actually materialise, whether this is a market to take seriously now or to keep watching from the sidelines.
I recognised the hesitation. Around ten years ago, in an engineering firm designing large fertiliser plants worldwide, we tracked where major projects were emerging. India was always one of those markets we watched, often with a degree of scepticism. Many plans, many ambitions, many announcements — but projects rarely moved at the speed the announcements implied. The quiet internal conclusion was often: do not spend too much time there, it may not come off the ground.
I still occasionally encounter traces of that perception among European companies today. My own experience is that it is now sharply outdated.
What has actually changed
What has changed in India over the past five years is remarkable. Anyone spending time in Mumbai can feel it. Speed of infrastructure rollout. Scale of investment. Energy in the market. A momentum that increasingly reminds me of Dubai a decade ago, or Shanghai two decades ago.
And like those markets, the pace can be easy to underestimate until you are standing inside it. That is precisely where companies risk missing the boat.
The inverse perception is starting to form
I have started to notice the perception flipping the other way. Some Indian business leaders increasingly look at European companies the way some Europeans once looked at India: interested, exploratory, talking, not always fully committed.
That matters more than it sounds. In India, commitment is read through presence. Having local people on the ground, willing to invest in relationships, is a powerful market signal. It says this company is serious. It is not testing the waters. It is prepared to engage for the long term, with money behind the words.
That opens doors. Quarterly fly-in visits do not.
Relationships still sit at the heart of how much business actually gets done in India, and those relationships are built through continuity, not occasional appearances. There is an English expression — put your money where your mouth is. There may be few markets where that applies more strongly.
So what
If you are evaluating India today, three reality-checks are worth running before the next planning session.
First, make sure your internal picture of India is current. The default mental model of “ambitious but slow” was reasonable in 2015. It is no longer accurate, and operating from an outdated map will produce decisions that look conservative on paper and turn out late on the ground.
Second, ask honestly whether your presence matches your stated ambition. If your strategy deck talks about India as a strategic priority and the only flesh-and-blood representation is a distributor agreement and a fly-in three times a year, the market sees the gap before you do.
Third, watch for the inverse perception. The Indian groups you hope will partner with you, supply you, or one day acquire your local operation are quietly making the same calculation about European seriousness that your board is making about Indian delivery.
Sometimes the biggest barrier to entering a market is not the market itself. It is a perception of that market that no longer reflects reality.
If this resonates, let’s talk.
