The five best ways to invest in India's promising future

The pandemic has been catastrophic for India, yet the stockmarket is hitting record highs. Investors are right to remain optimistic about the long term, but they are pricing all the good news in, says Cris Sholto Heaton

Zomato delivery riders in India
Start-ups such as Zomato will help transform India's digital economy
(Image credit: © Alamy)

Covid-19 has spent the last 18 months overturning expectations around the world and India has been no exception. When the pandemic first took hold, there were fears that such a populous country with limited healthcare would be very badly hit. But after an initial wave of cases and a chaotic lockdown that left millions of migrant workers stranded around the country, the worst seemed to be over.

By the end of last year, the economy had reopened, new cases remained relatively low and it looked plausible that India had somehow built up enough immunity to return to normal while keeping coronavirus at bay. Unfortunately, that turned out to be very wrong.

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Cris Sholto Heaton

Cris Sholto Heaton is an investment analyst and writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2006 and was managing editor of the magazine between 2016 and 2018. He is especially interested in international investing, believing many investors still focus too much on their home markets and that it pays to take advantage of all the opportunities the world offers. He often writes about Asian equities, international income and global asset allocation.

Cris began his career in financial services consultancy at PwC and Lane Clark & Peacock, before an abrupt change of direction into oil, gas and energy at Petroleum Economist and Platts and subsequently into investment research and writing. In addition to his articles for MoneyWeek, he also works with a number of asset managers, consultancies and financial information providers.

He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and the Investment Management Certificate, as well as degrees in finance and mathematics. He has also studied acting, film-making and photography, and strongly suspects that an awareness of what makes a compelling story is just as important for understanding markets as any amount of qualifications.