S5 Ep99: On India's Capital Flows and Controls with Divakar Vijayasarathy of DVS Advisors

TRANSFIN. LongShorts with Nikhil Arora and Sharath Toopran

With a recovery-focused Budget and equity markets in parallel heating up, plenty seems to have transpired for Indian economy in the first two months of 2021.

The elephant in the room however is the country's comatose credit cycle. Hence it is only fitting to evaluate the problem of capital starvation in India Inc. - where there's excess and where there's shortage. And joining us today is Divakar Vijayasarathy, Founder of DVS Advisors - a professional services company focused on cross-border Tax, Legal, Risk and M&A Advisory.

Divakar, having engaged in active lending himself, brings his unique perspective towards the deep-rooted structural challenges afflicting India's credit markets in general, and cross-border capital flows in particular.

He however sees the winds of change at bay, and feels the Government is proactively trying to reform and create a framework which should alleviate these pain points soon. He is, in particular, optimistic of the anticipated role to be played by GIFT City in Gujarat, being involved in the requisite stakeholder conversations for some time now.

All in all, it was a pleasure chatting with Divakar, who brought nuance and granularity to this fascinating debate sitting on the crux of international taxation, law, regulations and finance.