Manish Chokhani believes India is on verge of a 'capex mela'

Being a child of the liberalisation era, Manish Chokhani, Director of Enam Holdings, believes that the last 30 years have been glorious for India as the gross domestic product (GDP) has gone up almost tenfold, India’s engagement with the external world, which is imports and exports, if combined then it has gone up twentyfold from what it was in 1991 and the market cap is up more than 50 times in this period, and all this in dollar terms.

On the eve of India’s 76th Independence Day, the journey of the economy and the financial markets, even over half this period is truly remarkable. The economy, from the 1991 liberalisation year, has grown from a GDP of $275 billion to $2.97 trillion of GDP in 2022 — that is a 10 times growth. The country's rank in terms of the size of the economy has risen from 16th to 6th, and should very soon be 5th in terms of GDP growth. In terms of market capitalization, the BSE 100 companies have grown from $45 billion in 1991 to $2.12 trillion as of March 2022 — a 48 times growth.

In an exclusive interview with CNBC-TV18, Chokhani spoke at length about the key successes of India’s journey and where it lagged in terms of financial markets in particular.