The structural shift of the past decade has changed the source of the fuel. The share of domestic investments in Indian listings reached nearly 75 per cent in 2025, the highest for any year. India’s GDP has grown at one of the fastest rates of any large economy. A middle class that did not meaningfully exist in 1991 now drives consumption and savings in equal measure. Global companies are rushing to list their local business units in India, lured by a valuation premium.

Of the 367 listings in 2025, 270 came from small and medium enterprises. IPO fundraising accounts for 49 per cent of all private capital exits in India, against 9 per cent in the US and 13 per cent in Europe.

Sometime in the coming months, Reliance Industries is expected to file paperwork to bring Reliance Jio public. The offering would be the largest in Indian history. Analysts have been cautious about predicting the listing’s reception, but broadly agree that the pipeline it represents reflects a market built on stronger foundations than any previous cycle.

The Dutch East India Company’s voyages to the Indian Ocean were about extracting value from the subcontinent. India’s IPO market, four centuries later, is about distributing it.