2/2: Full interview with Jonathan Gray unpacks three critical signals institutional investors are watching: 1. AI Infrastructure vs. 90s Telecom Bubble: Telecom was high-debt and supply-driven. Today’s AI compute buildout is funded by the strongest balance sheets on the planet (Microsoft, Amazon, Google) against real, excess enterprise demand. 2. Indian IT Services Evolution: Domestic IT firms are pivoting rapidly into enterprise AI deployment and workflow re-architecture, becoming the integration bridge for global Fortune 500s, not getting disintermediated. 3. Private Credit Discipline: Despite global rate hikes, private credit in India has avoided systemic stress due to tight LTVs and genuine mid-market demand. Gray’s core point: Global alternatives don’t allocate $100B on sentiment. They allocate where domestic market depth guarantees an exit. India’s deepest advantage is no longer just 7% growth, it’s transparent liquidity. @blackstone @investindia @makeinindia @DPIITGoI By @sruthijith

.@blackstone has $100-billion plans for India in 5 years. 💰 “After the US, India is the easiest place to list a company.” - Global COO Jonathan Gray • $50B already deployed → targeting $100B. • 14 portfolio companies taken public. • Built 5 of India’s 6 REITs. • Domestic markets up ~5.5x over 20 years. While short-term FPI volatility dominates headlines, Gray’s assessment is structural: ​• The Liquidity Moat: PE only scales where capital exits cleanly. Having listed 14 domestic firms and cleared billion-dollar block trades without disrupting secondary pricing, Blackstone views India's deep domestic bid as a critical structural moat. • Builders Over Buyouts: Unlike the West, capital in India must build physical capacity. Blackstone’s $100B pipeline targets hard assets: hyperscale AI data centers, renewable energy corridors, logistics, private credit, and retail infrastructure. • Earnings Over Sentiment: With GDP growth at 7%+ and corporate earnings compounding in the mid-teens, Gray argues public markets can quickly re-rate once quarterly execution cuts through macro noise. Private capital scales only where it can exit cleanly. Blackstone has already proven it can. @blackstone @NSEIndia @investindia Cc: @FinMinIndia By @sruthijith 1/2... #PrivateEquity #Blackstone #CapitalMarkets #IndianEconomy #Infrastructure Detailed interview 👇

The global economy is running out of shock absorbers. 🌐 We are one sentiment shift away from a major financial shock. ⏬️ That is the stark warning from Nobel laureate Michael Spence. Yet in the same breath, he identifies one clear structural exception: India. 🇮🇳 While stretched Western markets sit on elevated valuations with almost no margin for error, and China’s export model collides with rising tariff walls, Spence sees India as the rare growth outlier, operating near high structural potential with an engine built on domestic depth rather than external dependence. Here is the executive briefing on the shifting macro plates: and why India’s model is different: 1. Fragility at the Global Core: • Major Western indices are priced for perfection. Any abrupt reversal in sentiment (sticky inflation, conflict, or sovereign stress) risks sharp contagion and a US recession. • Policy space is largely exhausted. Record G7 debt-to-GDP leaves little room for another massive fiscal or monetary rescue. 2. China’s Structural Bind: • Heavy reliance on investment and foreign demand while household consumption remains suppressed (~40% of GDP). • The old export sponge is gone. Aggressive US and EU tariffs now block the surplus absorption that powered the 2000s model. Overcapacity risks exporting deflation instead of growth. 3. India’s Distinct Architecture: Spence highlights why India stands apart: • Domestic demand as the primary engine (~60–65% of GDP), anchored in 1.4 billion consumers, a built-in buffer against external shocks. • Digital Public Infrastructure (India Stack, UPI, identity systems) delivering financial inclusion and lower transaction costs at a speed physical infrastructure alone cannot match. • Capex focused on deepening domestic supply chains and critical infrastructure, creating internal momentum rather than pure export dependence. Strategic Takeaway: The era of frictionless globalisation is over. The next cycle will favour economies with deep domestic demand, resilient digital systems, and the ability to grow without relying on open external markets. India is not merely weathering the transition. It is running a different playbook. @FinMinIndia @RBI @NITIAayog @wef By @sruthijith #GlobalEconomy #MacroEconomics #Geopolitics #MichaelSpence #IndiaGrowth