Anand Mahindra Sees India as Key Player Amid Trade Shifts

Amid shifting geopolitical tides and rising protectionism disrupting global trade, Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra has expressed confidence in India’s potential to emerge as a resilient alternative in global supply chains.

In his address to shareholders through Mahindra & Mahindra’s latest annual report, Mahindra reflected on the escalating uncertainty in international trade, triggered by protectionist policies, retaliatory tariffs, and fractured supply chains. These developments, he warned, have dampened investor confidence and upended the liberal trade order of past decades.

“A growing wave of protectionism is challenging decades of liberal trade norms, dramatically highlighted by the Trump administration’s tariffs,” Mahindra wrote. “These measures are prompting retaliatory actions, disrupting global supply chains, and reshaping political and economic alliances. The situation remains fluid.”

He noted that while recent developments — such as tariff negotiations between the US and China, and renewed trade partnerships with the UK — indicate a pragmatic turn in US trade policy, the likelihood of a strategic decoupling between the US and China remains high.

The sectors likely to be hardest hit, Mahindra cautioned, are those most reliant on global integration — particularly consumer goods and electronics, where rising input costs due to disrupted supply chains could have far-reaching consequences.

Against this backdrop, Mahindra sees a critical opportunity for India. As companies and countries look to reduce over-reliance on China, India, he said, could position itself as a viable and trusted alternative.

“China’s adversarial posture may open doors for India to reposition itself as a global supply chain hub — a long-standing aspiration for Indian industry,” Mahindra noted. “To capitalise on this, innovation, R&D, and a manufacturing renaissance must take centre stage.”

He stressed that the window of opportunity is narrow. Countries like Vietnam and the Philippines are already aggressively marketing themselves as future manufacturing destinations, and India will need to move swiftly, backed by robust private investment and policy alignment, to seize this moment.

The Mahindra Group chief also called on Indian companies to align more closely with national priorities, particularly in sunrise sectors such as renewable energy, defence, and digital infrastructure.

“India is well-positioned to emerge as one of the new centres of gravity in the evolving global order,” he wrote. “We are a stable democracy, widely regarded as a reliable partner, and supported by a professional, non-politicised military — attributes that matter more than ever in an uncertain world.”

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