New Delhi: Yezdi Nagporewalla, chief executive officer of KPMG in India, used the opening of ENRich 2026, the firm's annual conference on energy and natural resources, to argue for economic breadth. India has sustained strong growth and domestic consumption despite rising geopolitical tensions, global trade uncertainties and supply-chain disruptions, he said. Real GDP rose 7.8 per cent year on year in the April-June quarter of FY27, compared with 6.9 per cent in the same quarter a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. LiveMint reported his remarks from the 2-3 November gathering in New Delhi.
Nagporewalla cautioned that geopolitical uncertainty and its impact on global trade and supply chains are likely to persist. The question, he said, is how effectively India can navigate this environment while sustaining growth and innovation. He told Mint:
"If you look at GDP (gross domestic product) growth and the broader economic indicators, India has demonstrated sustainability and resilience. Despite global challenges, we have continued to grow, supported by the strength of domestic consumption."
The arithmetic behind the optimism
Nagporewalla's confidence rests on a shift he reads as structural, not cyclical. The world is moving away from the globalisation model that prevailed a decade ago; countries are becoming inward-looking and forging new trade relationships. The United States has been a key trading partner, but recent developments have reinforced the need for India to diversify its trade relationships, strengthen global supply chains and build greater domestic resilience. That same turbulence offers a chance to enhance India's attractiveness as a global trade and investment destination. The continuing conflict in West Asia has heightened concerns around energy security and shipping routes; tariff uncertainties and strategic tensions between major economies such as the US and China are reshaping global trade flows.
The sectors he names are specific. Manufacturing, semiconductors and data centres sit at the intersection of the government's production-linked incentive architecture, the India Semiconductor Mission, and the digital infrastructure push under Digital India. A chief executive of a Big Four advisory firm endorsing these three sectors signals where corporate India sees durable returns. It also shows that the policy scaffolding exists and now requires execution. The India Semiconductor Mission and production-linked incentive schemes for electronics and IT hardware form the first layer; data centre growth relies on state-level incentives and the Digital India backbone. What Nagporewalla is saying, in corporate language, is that these instruments exist and the next phase is converting them into output.
The source matters as much as the message. KPMG in India is not a manufacturing firm; it is an advisor to capital, and its chief executive's public read of resilience is itself a market signal. When a Big Four leader points to semiconductors and data centres, he is telling clients where contract pipelines are expected to form. That expectation, if it spreads, becomes part of the investment climate itself.
Diversification gets a trade lane
The argument is moving from conference language to negotiating table. India and Mexico have launched negotiations for a preferential trade agreement, LiveMint reported; bilateral merchandise trade stood at about $7.83 billion in FY26, with India recording a surplus of around $3.62 billion. A surplus of that scale in a relationship this size is useful but small; the opportunity lies in scaling the base through preferential terms. The Mexico file is one lane in a wider diversification strategy, not a replacement for the United States but a second access point for India's export basket. India has followed the same logic in other corridors; the Mexico negotiation shows whether India can convert resilience into durable market access beyond its two largest demand centres.
Where execution will be won
The stiffer challenge is not intent; it is execution. Manufacturing's share of GDP remains below what an economy of India's scale needs to create formal work at scale, and the electronics trade deficit has been a persistent drain that semiconductors alone will not reverse overnight. Data centres demand uninterrupted power and large, titled land parcels; both carry regulatory friction that state governments must clear. Advanced fabrication needs a labour force trained to precision, and that training pipeline does not yet match investor demand. These sectors drive formal jobs, technology transfer, and foreign direct investment; they are exactly the categories that decide whether India's growth arithmetic becomes inclusive or remains narrow.
The venue itself is a reminder of the vulnerability. ENRich is an energy and natural resources conference, and Nagporewalla's warning about West Asia sits close to India's largest energy artery. Crude supply, shipping insurance and the rupee each absorb the shock before the fiscal arithmetic registers. Diversification of trade cannot be separated from diversification of energy routes; the two feed each other. A country that broadens its export destinations but leaves its energy imports concentrated has only half-finished the task.
India has positioned itself as the leading China+1 destination for multinational firms reconfiguring supply chains. The KPMG assessment treats India as a supply-chain hedge with structural strengths, not a temporary refuge. That credibility extends into technology governance and supply-chain security dialogues, including Quad and Indo-Pacific frameworks, where semiconductors and data infrastructure have become bargaining assets.
What should Indian readers take from a corporate chief's remarks at an energy conference? The significance lies less in the forecast than in the confirmation: the debate has shifted from whether India can grow to what kind of growth it should prioritise. Diversification is now a planning problem, and the planning problem is execution. India's next phase will be measured less by the resilience it has displayed and more by the bottlenecks it clears.
