Three decades ago, India embarked on a quiet revolution. The liberalisation of 1991 opened locked doors for entrepreneurs, dismantled layers of control, and gradually replaced suspicion with trust. In the years that followed, private enterprise thrived on the assurance that policy would be predictable and that disagreement with those in power would not invite personal retribution.

This environment, nurtured through the early 2000s, gave business leaders the confidence to commit capital on a scale the country had never witnessed. Private investment rose from a modest share of national output to historic highs, creating jobs and fuelling a new middle class. The subsequent decade has been very different. Corporate taxes are lower than at any time in independent India, credit is easier to access, and infrastructure spending by the state has been unprecedented. Yet private investment remains sluggish, stuck at levels........

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