Since liberalisation in the 1990s, entrepreneurial activity has become a key engine of economic growth in India, but entrepreneurs in emerging markets must navigate both the economic and political environments. Indian businesses have emerged as critical actors in the political arena—shaping institutional boundaries, influencing policy, and adapting to volatile electoral landscapes—but despite their growing clout, remain understudied as political agents. This is partially due to data limitations, which restricted scholarly inquiry to qualitative, ethnographic, or journalistic accounts, mainly about large business houses. This talk provides an overview of the evolution of the field of study of business and politics in India, and highlights how technical breakthroughs introduce new data that allow for more granular approaches to study how firms interact with politics as funders, philanthropists, and investors in the world’s largest democracy.
About the speaker: Sukrit is an assistant professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at London Business School. His research focuses on business and politics in emerging markets, with a focus on corporate governance and political strategies of firms in India. He holds a PhD in political science from MIT, and prior to academia worked as an emerging markets investment analyst at Goldman Sachs.
