1.2 Nearly 18 months on, the landscape has vastly changed. Macro-economic stability has
returned, reforms are being undertaken, the external environment has moved in India's favour,
and above all, a new Government has come into power with a relatively unencumbered political
mandate for decisive economic change, a mandate that markets have enthusiastically embraced.
The Indian stock market has increased in value by 33 percent since March (in dollar terms),
amongst the highest in the EMs, benefitting from surging foreign capital inflows. India now
represents one of the sparks in the world economy and the only major country not to suffer a
growth downgrade by the IMF. From Fragile Five to Near-Solitary Spark of the global economy is
the Indian narrative of the last year.