Investment tigers prowling to help India roar

35 (nearly 70 per cent) and the median age is 27.

OK, India is still a long way behind the West on its development path. Its urban middle class only earn between $10 and $100 per day. GDP per head is a fifth of China’s.

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t money to be made by UK investors.

For example, the Jupiter India Fund, managed by Avinash Vazirani, has risen 130 per cent in three years.

Similar trusts are performing well too.

Mr Vazirani said: “For many years the pace of India’s development was hampered by ‘bottlenecks’ – primarily a lack of adequate infrastructure, either physical, such as railways or roads, or social, such as healthcare and education, and outdated and overly restrictive laws.

“But the election in 2014 of President Narendra Modi’s businessfriendly government has been a major positive.

“In addition to re-booting stalled projects, the Modi government’s initiatives in financial inclusion have been a particular success; linking bank accounts, social security and health insurance to unique biomet- ric information for the entire population. This has already begun to lift millions out of poverty while bringing vast swathes of the country out of the shadow economy and into the formal banking system.”

James Carthew, a director at Marten & Co, notes there have been hiccups along the way, notably the government’s shock announcement that most of India’s paper currency was about to stop being legal tender.

He said: “Demonetisation was a bold move aimed at choking off much of the black market economy and corrupt practices that were plaguing the country.

“It had a considerably disruptive effect on the economy, the stock market fell sharply and so did the three trusts that specialise in investing in Indian equities, Aberdeen New India, JPMorgan Indian and AIMlisted, Guernsey-based India Capital Growth, their net asset values down between 11 per cent and 14 per cent in the weeks after.” But the setback did not last long. Net asset values for all three funds were soon back ahead of the level of November 7, the day before demonetisation was revealed.

Could Indian growth be affected by US President Donald Trump’s protectionist rhetoric?

It has certainly put some investors off emerging markets, with China and Mexico under pressure, but Indian companies appear to be marching ahead.

And, in the wake of Trump’s healthcare failure and the split nature of the Republican Party, pundits question just how many of his boasts will see the light of day.

Certainly, India has plenty of experience of coping with any such “monsoon”. A word or two of caution, though. Investors should not place too much in emerging markets as they are high risk, tend to be volatile and should only form a relatively small part of typical investor portfolios.

But, with more mainstream equity markets looking quite high just now, India is well worth a look both pre-Brexit and post-Brexit. Trevor Law is managing director of Merito Financial Services, chartered financial planners, based in Solihull. Email:tilaw@meritofs.com