India’s difficult business environment is improving

Ramesh Muthuramalingam founded Alphacraft, a manufacturing firm, 25 years ago in a small workshop in the southern city of Coimbatore. It now operates out of a 4,500 square-metre (50,000 square-foot) factory, piled with aluminium cast parts. It employs 400 people and will soon open a second facility of similar size. Customers include Indian startups, notably Ola Electric, a fast-growing local scooter manufacturer, and global companies including Britain’s Aston Martin and America’s John Deere.

Foreign firms are newly interested in companies like Alphacraft because of three shifts: a desire to lessen their dependence on China; a belief that Indian production can now meet global standards; and the fact that India itself is a fast growing market that favours local production for its own products.