Over the past few years, foreign businesses exiting India have outnumbered those entering it.
Since 2018, the number of such companies has constantly risen, with the total coming up to 559, data shared by India’s minister of state for corporate affairs, Rao Inderjit Singh in the parliament, showed. Up to 469 entered the country during this period, with 2022 seeing an all-time low.
The rise in exits in 2021 and 2022 could largely be attributed to the slump that followed the covid-19 pandemic’s sweep through the country, forcing a nationwide lockdown in 2020. Crippled finances, a shortage of labour, supply-chain issues, among other problems, forced many of these entities to wrap up their operations.
Between 2019 and 2021, in Delhi and neighbouring regions, around 40% of the business owners shut shop, according to a National Council of Applied Economic Research study. Another estimate showed more than 10,000 businesses voluntarily winding up operations amid the hopelessness triggered by the pandemic.