"Be Patient With India": Global Honcho Tells Nikhil Kamath Why Copying China Won't Work

When Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath asked General Atlantic Co-President Martin Escobari what India could learn from China's rise, Escobari did not offer a simple China playbook. His answer was more cautious, and perhaps more important: India must find its own path, and investors must be patient.

Escobari, who has deployed over $5 billion into India, recalled visiting China years ago when its GDP was only about 20 per cent bigger than Brazil's. "Today, it's 14 times bigger," he said, pointing to the scale of transformation China achieved over 25 years.

Kamath asked him what China got right. Escobari said China "industrialised", built infrastructure, embraced digital and made export-led manufacturing its calling card. Kamath then pointed to another advantage China had: without elections every five years, it could make "40-year plans" instead of four-year plans.

Escobari agreed that India's answer could not be a copy-paste of China's model. "Your solution is going to have to be more nuanced and more custom-made for India and the unique richness and traditions and complexities of your country," he said. But he also sounded bullish on the direction of travel. Looking at India's growth trajectory, he said, "8 per cent is a lot. 8 per cent compounded over 10 years. So be patient with your country."

Kamath said he remains "all in on India", partly because he made his money in the country, and partly because he believes India will eventually become a $10 trillion economy. "It might not happen in five years. It might not happen in eight. It might not happen in 10," he said, adding that he is rebalancing his portfolio with a larger allocation to IT services and banking. 

He admitted that buying IT services companies in an AI-first world may look counterintuitive, but said Indian companies with strong moats and valuations of 12 to 15 times still make sense to him.

The conversation then moved to a question that has troubled India's startup ecosystem for years: why has India not yet produced a truly global company at scale?

Escobari said it takes one pioneer to create the "role model effect". "It can be done. There's access to capital. There is unfair access to human capital that is AI-trained at the right time. You need the courage to do what has never been done before," he said. 

Once one Indian company breaks through globally, he added, it will give courage to others.

But he also pointed to India's paradox. A market of 1.3 billion people is both a blessing and a trap. Escobari called it the "curse of a domestic market" because companies can become too comfortable serving India alone.

"It is uncomfortable to go to a new country, build a multi-country team and get out of the comfort zone," he said. At the same time, he added, even conquering India is not like conquering one country. "The diversity in your country is beyond comprehension to anyone who hasn't travelled to your country. It's not one country. It's an amalgamation of civilisations."

For Escobari, who grew up in a country that saw 35,000 per cent inflation, 11 presidents in a decade and three coups before he turned 20, entrepreneurship is rarely born from comfort. He said the survivors are often people carrying a wound: intergenerational trauma, lost fortunes, public failure, or something that does not let them sit still.