Indian capital abroad: companies, professionals and families

In April–August 2026 Indian companies’ outward direct investment was US$17.7 billion on the Reserve Bank’s net presentation, against US$13.8 billion of net FDI into India. In that five-month window the country was a two-way direct investor. The window is short. The pattern is older: Indian firms hold operating subsidiaries, not only sales offices.

What the firms are doing

Information-technology groups deliver work from Indian cities and also staff client sites and subsidiaries abroad. Pharmaceutical companies hold approvals and plants in the markets that buy their formulations. Industrial groups and conglomerates own foreign operations in resources, vehicles and consumer goods. A subsidiary is balance-sheet exposure, management time and sometimes a property lease in the foreign city. On its own, it is weak evidence that the Indian promoter has left.

GIFT City, in Gandhinagar, is the onshore place where some international financial business is now booked under the International Financial Services Centres Authority. It is an Indian regime with a different rulebook. The factory and the household stay where they were.

Professionals and families

The January 2026 stock of 37.3 million overseas Indians is the human side of the same outward story. Professionals carry skills and, later, savings. Families hold school fees, deposits and sometimes a flat on each side. The Liberalised Remittance Scheme is the channel the Reserve Bank publishes for resident individuals sending money out, dominated by travel. A bulletin figure is left in the bulletin. Household outward transfers, corporate outward investment and inward private transfers are three lines. Adding them together and calling the sum ‘Indian capital’ mixes different things.

For a property reader the practical mirror is FEMA on the way back in. Capital that left as a salary or a company cheque returns, if it buys a building, under the inbound property rule. The diaspora essay has the people. This one has the direction of the money.