New Delhi: Publicly declaring one’s connection to India seems to be on the crest of a great Indian wave in global politics today—both to someone’s advantage and to someone else’s detriment.
One man who is aiming to reap the benefits of an Indian connection is the new president-elect of the European Union, Antonio Costa. Politico reports that the former Portuguese prime minister—who is of Goan descent—is “keen to use his Indian heritage to redefine Europe’s often unequal relationship with Asia, Africa and South America”.
Costa’s paternal grandfather is from Goa, and his grandmother was French-Mozambican. His background, Politico reports, distinguishes him from previous holders of top EU posts, since most have had a “hard time connecting with continents where Europe’s representatives are sometimes dismissed as condescending interlopers.”
During his 8-year tenure as Portuguese prime minister, Costa built relationships with several African, Asian and South American countries—a background that will help him, he hopes, in an emerging multipolar world.
“Costa boasted that on a visit to India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had personally given him an overseas citizen card that grants him indefinite residency and work privileges—and said that his “cultural closeness, knowledge and sometimes even linguistic skills…obviously help, and I hope to use them in the service of the EU,” Politico reports.
The EU seems to want a slice of the multipolar pie, it seems.
Others, meanwhile, are seeking to hide their connections with India.
Another Politico story describes how a Labour MP in the UK of Indian origin, Navendu Mishra, has been accused of hiding Indian donations after tabling 14 written questions in Parliament on the UK’s relationship with India.
The questions, Politico reports, were about relations starting September 2023, and were about the number of Indian applications for British visas, whether the UK would support India’s bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, and on the number of British civil servants in India, among others.
But all this was offset by the fact Mishra failed to declare his strong Indian connections—which include receiving nearly 5,000 pounds from the Indian High Commission to sponsor a reception, and accepting a trip to India worth over 11,000 pounds from the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
While going on sponsored trips to foreign countries is normal, it’s typically expected of MPs to declare such relationships, especially when asking questions in parliament about the country in question.
This trip in question was made in February 2024 while Mishra was a parliamentary aide to Deputy Labour Leader Angela Rayner, who also travelled on the same FICCI trip with other senior Labour politicians like David Lammy and Jonathan Reynolds.
“However, they do not appear to have explicitly raised Indian interests in parliament following their visits,” Politico reports.
The story about Mishra comes as Westminster has become more careful about political lobbying, even implementing a ban on parliamentary campaign groups funded by foreign governments. Mishra’s questions, then, look suspiciously like they were framed by vested interests.
A third case shows how highlighting an Indian connection is a risky bet. Yet another foreign entity is in hot water: this time, its American investment bank Jefferies that’s in a spot for its loyalty to the Adani Group.
The Financial Times reports that Jefferies—the only US bank to help the Adani group raise equity of $1.9 billion after the Hindenburg report’s allegations of fraud—is now in a “potentially tricky position” over the recent American indictment against Adani.
Jefferies rapidly expanded in India, thanks to the Adani patronage. But now it has to distance itself from the group without sabotaging its business relationships with the conglomerate.
Jefferies is now the second largest bank to make money in fees from advising on equity-raising, behind only India’s ICICI. It’s the largest international bank to be making this much money.
“Two deals that helped propel it to second place were a $500mn Adani Enterprises share sale in October, and a $1bn Adani Energy Solutions fundraise in August,” FT reports. “Last year Jefferies’ investment banking fee revenue in India jumped to $44.9mn, close to four times the sum it had made in any year since at least 2014, figures from the London Stock Exchange Group show. So far this year, it has already topped that, with $57mn in fees. It is not clear how much of that revenue comes from Adani companies.”
FT also reports that as recently as last month, “a senior Jefferies executive was privately touting its relationship with Adani as a success.” But now, a person close to the bank says that it’ll only consider future business with Adani on a “case-by-case basis,” perhaps an indication of how the tides have shifted.
The Jefferies story comes from FT’s global desk, reported from London, Hong Kong and Beirut. Its Indian desk paints a slightly different picture of the Indian economy in an interview with the RBI chief, Shaktikanta Das.
Das defended India’s economic resilience in an interview with FT, saying that India is “well placed” to handle any spillover shocks as the world prepares for potential protectionism and trade wars as Donald Trump takes office.
“Whatever is happening within India, we can to a great extent influence, but what is happening outside, we have to defend against them,” said Das.
He pointed to India’s $676 billion of foreign exchange reserves and its fast growth rate as being the shock absorbers for any external issues like supply chain bottlenecks, “geo-economic fragmentation”, and surging commodity prices.
Das’s term expires soon, and he’s currently grappling with accelerated inflation—which recently breached the RBI’s upper threshold of 6 percent in October. Economists think the RBI should hold its key interest rate at 6.5 percent, but that’s at odds with Piyush Goyal’s recent declaration that the RBI should cut rates to prioritise growth.
“India’s economy and equity markets are also showing signs of cooling,” FT writes in the interview. It quotes last week’s Goldman Sachs figures which forecast India’s economic growth in 2025 will slow to 6.3 percent, after hitting 6.7 percent this year.
Das said India’s economy is “a mixed picture.” He refused to comment on rumours that his term might potentially be expanded. Known to be one of the most hawkish governors in recent history, his reappointment would mean that “policy loosening” won’t happen for the time being.
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