Geopolitical Trade Winds bring India’s Historic Domestic Reforms

India’s reform trajectory shows a consistent pattern: the most important changes have been driven not by internal agreement but mainly by external trade pressures and geopolitical trends. The dismantling of the License Raj in 1991 was a response to a severe balance-of-payments crisis, just as later liberalization of foreign direct investment, tariff reform, and tax changes were motivated by the need to connect with global supply chains and stay competitive. Even recent domestic steps—such as restructuring the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes—reflect the government’s effort to absorb shocks from U.S. tariff increases and changing global consumption patterns. In this way, India’s reform plan is less about protection and more about adaptation, where i