Built by Indians, Open to the World

The plan

1. Indian control rule for new investments. In every unlisted company below ₹500 crore of project capital spending, Indian residents hold at least 51% of the votes and appoint the board majority. Foreign investors may hold up to 50% of the economic shares. Shares with differential voting rights let a 50/50 money split still give Indians 51% of votes. The rule extends FEMA's existing "owned and controlled by Indians" test, and it applies only to investments made after notification day.
2. Where foreign capital is fully free.
   • Listed companies: foreign portfolio investment and FDI under today's sector caps.
   • Projects of ₹500 crore or more (fabs, factories, power, ports, data centres): today's FDI caps, including 100% automatic routes. Only capital actually spent within 3 years counts, in audited accounts. If spending falls short, foreign votes are capped at 49% until it is met. Linked firms are added up by beneficial owner.
   • Sectors under Sovereignty first (Tier 1 and Tier 2) keep their own tighter rule.
3. Startups under the same rule. Foreign investors hold up to 50% of the economics and Indians 51% of the votes, with differential voting rights so founders keep control as they raise money. A startup that lists or crosses ₹500 crore of capital spending is fully open. A 30-day fast track lets any Indian-founded company based abroad move its holding company back to India.
4. Every large not-for-profit runs on open books. Every trust, society or other not-for-profit with yearly receipts above ₹1 crore, whatever its purpose, religious, charitable or other, either converts to a Section 8 company (the Companies Act not-for-profit company) within 1 year or keeps its form and files exactly the same accounts with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA). The same disclosure applies to every one of them, whatever its cause, faith or funders:
   • Every rupee in and out moves digitally (Chapter 2) and appears on a public MCA dashboard within 48 hours, fed automatically from the bank account. Gifts and payments above ₹10,000 show the donor or payee and the purpose; smaller amounts are shown as totals.
   • Every trustee, director, senior employee and related party is named, with their wealth recorded in the asset register (Chapter 13).
   • Any money that came from abroad, including through Indian intermediaries, is traced and flagged.
   • A quarterly report of activities and measured outcomes.
   • A yearly audit by an auditor assigned at random through the faceless system (Chapter 13).
   • No political spending of any kind (elections are funded only through open bonds, Chapter 13).
   • Breaches: the first costs 10% of that year's receipts; a second bars the board from any not-for-profit for 5 years; diverted money is forfeited and those responsible are prosecuted. Registration is cancelled only by a court, after a hearing.
5. Indian money for not-for-profits. New foreign donations to NGOs end after a 12-month wind-down. Foreign donors may give instead to an independent statutory India Development Trust. Its board is chosen by the same panel as Chapter 14's statistics authority: the Chief Justice of India's nominee, the Leader of the Opposition and the RBI Governor. Donors name a sector and a district, never a recipient. Grants follow a published rubric, every grant is published within 48 hours, and the CAG audits the Trust every year. UN and multilateral funds flow through the government. Research contracts that pay for a defined deliverable are trade, not donations, and are open to every Indian body on the same terms.
6. Rupee trade. Every government import and export contract offers rupee invoicing. RBI widens the Special Rupee Vostro Account (SRVA) network to every FTA partner. Rupee lending to non-residents, allowed for Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka since October 2025, is extended to all of South Asia and the Gulf. Rupee invoicing is pushed first where India is the large buyer, such as Gulf oil and gas, so partners can spend the rupees they earn. SRVA balances may be invested in government bonds (allowed since August 2025) and listed equity.
7. America as the benchmark for capital and control. As in the United States, foreign investment is screened only for security and Sovereignty first, on a fixed clock. CFIUS assesses a declaration in 30 days and reviews a full notice in 45 days, with a 45-day investigation only when needed; India decides approval-route FDI in 30 days or deems it approved, and land-border proposals in 60 days. DPIIT publishes every decision time each quarter beside the US clock. Founders keep their shares with differential voting rights when they list, as founders do on US exchanges, on simple published terms that SEBI notifies within 1 year.
8. Trade deals. Sign the EU deal, put the UK, Oman, EFTA and New Zealand deals to full use, push the US agreement to conclusion and open GCC negotiations. Every new deal carries a rupee-settlement clause and lists the Indian control rule as a reserved measure.

Cost and return

• Ownership dashboard. MCA and RBI join their existing beneficial-ownership filings into one public dashboard: under ₹50 crore (estimate), because the data is already filed.
• Money at stake. Most FDI by value goes to large projects and listed or near-listed firms, for example computer software and hardware ($13.94 billion) and services ($10 billion) in April-December FY26, and those stay open. At most 15 to 20% of equity FDI needs restructuring into the 50/50 economic, 51% voting format: ₹83,400 crore to ₹1.11 lakh crore a year (estimate: 15 to 20% of ₹5.56 lakh crore). It is restructured, not lost.
• NGO conversion. Planning estimate: about 50,000 bodies above ₹1 crore of receipts, replaced by the actual MCA and income-tax count in the first 30 days. At about ₹1.5 lakh each for legal and filing work, that is about ₹750 crore in total (50,000 × ₹1.5 lakh), paid by the bodies over a year.
• Replacing foreign grants. About ₹18,580 crore a year of foreign giving must be replaced. If half of foreign donors move their gifts to the India Development Trust, the gap is about ₹9,300 crore a year (estimate), published quarterly. CSR money (about ₹30,000 crore a year) already funds Indian NGOs and is not counted as new. No public money backfills the gap.
• Taxes. Donations pay the bank-transaction tax rate of the receiving account (Chapter 1), like every other credit. There is no exemption for any body.
• Rupee trade. Lifting rupee invoicing from 6.08% to 10% of goods exports moves about ₹1.64 lakh crore (3.92% × ₹41.8 lakh crore) out of dollar conversion. At a 0.25% spread, exporters save about ₹410 crore a year (estimate), and demand for rupee assets grows.

Timeline

First 30 days:

• DPIIT notifies the Indian control rule in FDI policy (a Press Note) for new investments only.
• MCA notifies the Section 8 conversion route with a 1-page online form. Stamp duty and registration fees end for everyone on Chapter 1's switch day (month 12), so a body can time its conversion to pay neither.
• The Not-for-Profit Transparency Bill is introduced, using Parliament's power over trusts and charities (Concurrent List entries 10 and 28), together with an FCRA amendment for the 12-month wind-down and the India Development Trust.
• RBI publishes a baseline of rupee invoicing by partner country.
• DPIIT publishes the approval and security-review clocks beside the US CFIUS timelines.
• The Commerce Ministry fixes the US negotiating calendar and confirms the EU signing date.

Within 1 year:

• Both Bills passed; every not-for-profit above ₹1 crore converted or filing on MCA; foreign donations to NGOs end at month 12; India Development Trust making grants.
• At least 10% of goods exports invoiced in rupees; SRVAs live with every FTA partner.
• SEBI terms for founders' extra-voting shares at listing notified; four quarterly reports of FDI decision times against the US clock published.
• EU deal signed; GCC negotiations opened; US agreement concluded or its open issues published.

Guardrails

• No retroactive taking. The control rule applies only to investments made after notification day. Existing foreign-owned firms, such as Suzuki's majority in Maruti, stay as they are.
• Approval clock. Any approval-route FDI is decided in 30 days or is deemed approved. Proposals from land-border countries keep their security review, with a 60-day clock.
• Anti-front rule. An Indian holder found to be a nominee for a foreigner loses voting rights in that company, and the foreign party pays 25% of the investment as a penalty, decided by an adjudicating officer within 90 days. Beneficial owners are disclosed down to 10%.
• Simple filing for small bodies. Any body with receipts under ₹1 crore files a 1-page annual statement within 30 days of year-end; missing it costs ₹10,000. Size lines such as ₹1 crore of receipts or ₹500 crore of project capital are not carve-outs: each is published, binds every body of that size alike, and scales the duty to the money at stake.
• Enforcement by numbers, not views. Audits are picked at random, and enforcement figures are published every quarter by type of cause. No registration is cancelled except by a court.
• Rupee stability. No full capital-account convertibility in year 1. Total SRVA holdings of government bonds are capped at 2% of outstanding central government bonds.

Limits to know

Rupee invoicing and new trade deals need the other side to agree. India can make rupees attractive and offer them in every contract, but cannot force a foreign buyer to accept them, so 10% of exports is the strongest realistic one-year target.

Sources: FDI FY26 by country and sector, Outlook Business · Net FDI $7.7 bn FY26, PSU Watch/RBI · FY26 exports, Tribune · Trade deficit $119.3 bn, Angel One · Rupee invoicing shares, RBI Bulletin, Business Standard · RBI rupee loans to neighbours, Business Today · SRVA bond investment, SCC Online · FCRA numbers, Outlook Business · FTA tracker 2026, India Briefing · Press Note 3 changes 2026, Legal 500 · Noel Harper v Union of India, Supreme Court Observer · Philippines foreign ownership rules, ASEAN Briefing · Charity annual return, GOV.UK · India-UAE first crude deal in local currencies, AGBI · CFIUS filing guidance: 30-day declaration, 45-day review, 45-day investigation