India Is Just 3% of the World Market — Why I Invest Globally
If you invest only in India, you own about 3% of the world's equity market. Chapter 1 of The Global Indian Investor — the case for looking beyond the NSE/BSE.
About This Video
This is Chapter 1 of The Global Indian Investor, brought to video. It makes the case for looking beyond the NSE/BSE — not to chase returns abroad, but to stop carrying concentration risk you never chose.
What You’ll Learn
- Why India is only ~3.2% of global equity market capitalisation
- How NSE actually compares to Nasdaq in scale, depth, and the kind of companies listed
- Which businesses you simply cannot buy through an Indian exchange
- The three paths to global exposure — and why this book focuses on LRS
- What 50 years of INR depreciation did to rupee-denominated wealth
- How a global multi-asset portfolio creates rebalancing opportunities an India-only portfolio never gets
The Numbers
| What | Value |
|---|---|
| Global equity market cap | ~$160 trillion |
| United States | ~44% |
| Asia-Pacific (ex-India) | ~27% |
| Europe | ~11% |
| India | ~3.2% |
| NSE vs Nasdaq | ~$5.3T vs ~$42.2T (~8x) |
| INR per USD, 1975 → 2025 | ₹8.4 → ₹87 (~90% depreciation) |
Key Insight
The wrong framing: “Indian markets are growing — why look outside?”
The right framing: “Am I concentrated in one country, one economic cycle, and one currency?”
India’s IT sector builds software for others. Nasdaq lists the companies building the platforms, chips, and operating systems those services run on. Owning only one side of that is a choice — it should at least be a deliberate one.
Related Resources
- Chapter 1 — Why Beyond India?
- The Global Indian Investor — full book
- Chapter 2 — 3 Paths to Global Investing for Indians
- Chapter 3 — How to Transfer Money Efficiently?
Who Should Watch This
- Indian investors whose entire portfolio sits in domestic equities
- Anyone who has wondered whether international diversification is worth the setup friction
- Investors curious about LRS, Irish ETFs, and direct global investing
- Anyone building a long-term, rule-based, multi-asset portfolio
Watch the video above for the full case — then read the book to learn how to actually act on it.