'Indian products simply not good enough': Navam Capital MD explains why consumers prefer foreign brands

Navam Capital Managing Director Rajeev Mantri on Sunday raised questions over India's economic competitiveness, linking the growing preference for foreign-made products and overseas weddings to long-standing policy failures and structural hurdles that remain unresolved even decades after liberalisation.

"I am taking the liberty to highlight some reasons why Indians are going abroad for weddings, or why they are preferring to buy foreign-made products," Mantri wrote on X. "The brutal truth is most Indian products and services are simply not good enough compared to those made by foreign companies. They are inferior in quality and reliability, and simply do not provide similar value for money."

His remarks came days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking in Varanasi, urged citizens to adopt swadeshi values and support domestic products. "India, too, is on the path to becoming the world’s third-largest economy and must remain alert to its own economic priorities," Modi had said, citing global economic instability. "True service to the nation lies in promoting indigenous goods."

Mantri responded by underlining the gap between government appeals and ground realities. "As you know Indian consumers are very value-conscious and will always seek the best deal for their money. 35 years since economic liberalization, the blunt truth is in aggregate we continue to be nowhere globally and Indian entrepreneurs are not to blame for it at all — it is successive Governments (central and state) which are responsible.”

He argued that while FDI and trade liberalisation have exposed Indian businesses to international competition, governments have failed to clear key internal bottlenecks. "A number of structural reforms are long-pending. Nothing is moving on that front at all. This is making India uncompetitive as a business building destination," he said.

Mantri pointed to systemic issues stalling economic progress: "We have a failed credit market and banking system. We rank in the bottom 5/7 countries globally on contract enforcement. We have insane labour laws. Land acquisition for large projects is practically impossible, and a tiny number of states are solving for it at their own level."

He also questioned India’s stagnant manufacturing share. "In aggregate, as an economy, we cannot make anything which is in high demand in the rest of the world, which is the benchmark of quality and competitiveness. This is the blunt truth — the share of manufacturing in GDP continues to stagnate, a decade after Make in India was launched."

On the swadeshi appeal, he asked: "It is great to make soft appeals to buy Indian, buy Swadeshi etc — but pray tell, why should consumers spend their hard-earned tax-paid money on products and services that most of the time simply do not match up to what is offered by some company from abroad?"

Drawing a comparison with international tourism infrastructure, Mantri wrote, "It would cost 2/3x to hold a wedding at a destination in India, compared to what it may cost at a similar location in Thailand or Indonesia. We lag so far behind on tourism infra and lodging that it is positively shocking."

He placed the responsibility squarely on the state. "Again, it is Govts constraining Indian businesses from achieving their potential. This is so because like others before it, even this Govt is choosing to coddle and kowtow to special interests — be they labour unions, regional political interests or big business houses."

In a direct appeal to the Prime Minister, he wrote: "One of the reasons crores have elected you (thrice now) is to deliver on economic reforms. Please deliver on them, in addition to the soft appeals to Spend / Buy In India."

Concluding his message, Mantri added: "The entire nation has its hopes pinned on you… We citizens don’t mind the occasional sermon, but ultimately action is what counts — that is what you have shown over your exemplary and peerless ~25 year career in Government. Please deliver on your own reform commitments and promises, nobody else can do it."