- Blackstone president says India is nearing a tipping point for foreign capital inflows.
- Gray credits India’s growth to improved infrastructure, legal systems, and capital markets.
- As India’s economy accelerates, focus may shift to fintech and digital assets next.
Blackstone Inc. President Jon Gray says that India is approaching an economic tipping point for foreign capital.
Gray says the nation has delivered the firm’s highest private equity returns globally after a strategic shift to focus on control deals in IT services, commercial real estate, and domestic manufacturing.
As infrastructure, capital markets, and tech talent in India are improving, the same investment environment could now create opportunities for fintech, tokenization, and digital assets, despite regulatory and market barriers.
Blackstone President Says India Is Nearing an Investment Tipping Point
In a recent interview, Blackstone President recalled that the firm’s early experience in India was slow and unproductive. “We had sort of a skeleton crew. We didn’t really have a great defined strategy,” he said. “We couldn’t make the numbers work. So we did basically nothing.” Those difficulties were exacerbated by the global financial crisis.
The firm later revamped its strategy, acquiring majority or equal control interests and focusing on information-technology services, commercial real estate, and domestic manufacturing. This shift transformed results. India is now Blackstone’s top-performing private equity market globally, Gray said, with further upside expected as the economy expands.
“It takes time to get to a stage where you can really begin to expand your growth rate,” Gray noted. “And I do feel like India is getting closer and closer to that tipping point.” Supporting data shows GDP has grown almost fivefold to $3.69 trillion since 2005, lifting India from 14th to fourth globally. The World Bank reported that India’s growth surged to 7.6% in fiscal 2026, reinforcing the country’s position as the world’s fastest-growing major economy.
How Infrastructure, Capital Markets and Tech Talent Are Driving India’s Growth
Gray cited structural improvements as being a key driver of the change. “The real issue that has held India back for a long time was the infrastructure in the country. And it wasn’t just the physical infrastructure. It was the legal, the capital markets infrastructure,” he said. He credited the Modi administration with doing a “phenomenal job” in addressing these constraints, adding that “a lot of things are falling into place.”
By early 2026, India’s operational airports had increased to 164-165, and its national highway network had expanded to 146,572 km up from 91,287 km in 2014. Major ports saw cargo handling capacity increase almost double to approximately 1,726–1,728 million metric tonnes per annum, and railway electrification was completed on approximately 99.6% of broad-gauge rail infrastructure.
Additionally, regulatory and market structure changes, including the Goods and Services Tax, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, and the establishment of Real Estate Investment Trusts and Infrastructure Investment Trusts, have deepened. India’s tech talent pool has also further bolstered its IT services, AI, data analytics, and global capability centres.
Collectively, the three pillars are reducing long-standing bottlenecks and setting the stage for greater involvement of private capital across a broader range of sectors.
Could Fintech, Tokenization and Digital Assets Be Next?
The same structural improvements Jon Gray credits for Blackstone’s strong returns in India are now creating opportunities in fintech, tokenisation and digital assets. India was the third-largest fintech funding destination in the world with about 2.4 billion dollars in 2025. Its digital public infrastructure, including UPI, the e-KYC system based on Aadhaar, and account aggregators, has also given the fintech companies a platform to expand their payments, lending, wealth, and insurance business.
In addition, tokenization is slowly moving from the discussion phase to actual experimentation. In September 2026, RBI and SEBI launched the “Demat 2.0” pilot for tokenized corporate bonds, where REC, Larsen & Toubro and IIFL raised a total of ₹1,025 crore. Meanwhile, pure digital assets and cryptocurrencies continue to be more restricted, with a 30% tax on gains and a 1% TDS, as well as continued regulatory uncertainty that restricts wider institutional participation.
What’s Next for India’s Fintech and Digital-Asset Investment?
India’s fintech space is already seeing an influx of capital, and pilot projects for regulated tokenisation are progressing to adoption. The next phase will hinge on the scaling of Demat 2.0, the development of secondary-market liquidity, regulatory coordination, and crypto taxation.
If these barriers ease, India’s infrastructure, technology talent and deeper capital markets could support broader institutional investment in fintech and digital assets.
Related: India Proposes First Property Tokenization Law With DELTA Act
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