‘Indian billionaires buying foreign companies, India has slow growth’: BBC peddles propaganda around outbound acquisitions by Indian businesses

The UK’s public broadcaster, the BBC, often defaults to peddling negative tropes about India even when reporting on the country’s successes. In a fresh push to the ‘All is not well in India’ bogey, the BBC framed the recent increase in Indian outbound acquisitions worth over $18 billion across 162 deals in 2025, which marked a 34% year-on-year increase, as a result of a slowdown in India’s economic growth. The BBC article’s headline, “Indian billionaires buy foreign companies as growth slows at home”, is quite revealing of the underlying agenda of portraying even lucrative Indian mergers and acquisitions as more of an outcome of ‘domestic failures’ than strong balance sheets. Author Nikhil Inamdar highlighted the April 2026 Sun Pharmaceuticals acquisition of New York-listed women’s health and biosimilars firm Organon & Co. for $11.75 billion. The article also mentions the Tata Motors’ $4.4bn acquisition of Turin-based vehicle maker Iveco, IT company Coforge’s $2.35bn purchase of Silicon Valley-based AI firm Encora and the Bajaj Group’s 2025 purchase of 23% stake in insurance company Allianz. “These include Tata Motors’ $4.4bn acquisition of Turin-based vehicle maker Iveco, IT company Coforge’s $2.35bn purchase of Silicon Valley-based AI firm Encora and the Bajaj Group buying a 23% stake in global insurance giant Allianz SE earlier in 2025. Data from consultancy Grant Thornton shows that 162 Indian companies spent more than $18bn on outbound acquisitions in 2025 – a 34% increase from the previous year,” the BBC piece reads. Comparing the difference in domestic scenarios during the 2000s acquisition boom and now, the BBC article argues that during the 2000s, “India was in the midst of a roaring bull market”, today however, the country is “grappling with a rapid exodus of foreign portfolio investors, a sharp slowdown in net foreign direct investment (FDI) and stubbornly weak private sector investment despite tax cuts and production-linked subsidies offered by the government.” The article further attributed the foreign expansion of Indian companies in the form of acquisitions and stake purchase to “growing disaffection with the domestic business environment and better diversification and capability-building opportunities abroad.” This entire narrative of ‘growth slowing at home’, ‘growing corporate dissatisfaction’, ‘weak domestic demand’, and ‘capital fleeing India despite Modi government’s invest-in-India pleas’ is a classic case of the BBC’s selective, negativity-biased framing involving cherry-picking context and ignoring the broader economic realities of India. On one hand, the BBC portrays acquisitions by Indian companies, both big and small, as a result of FDI slowdowns, disaffection with the domestic business environment and better opportunities abroad; on the other, it cites experts to say that this fresh acquisition boom is driven by stronger balance sheets and improved access to global financing. How would these companies have a strong balance sheet if they weren’t thriving domestically? How would they thrive domestically if there weren’t a conducive business environment? ‘Stronger balance sheets’ do not emerge in a vacuum but from consistent profitability, operational efficiency, retained earnings, and most importantly, revenue growth. These overwhelmingly depend on domestic operations and/or foreign operations built on a robust home base. Indian companies have faced and successfully deleveraged post-IL-FS to NBFC crisis and the Covid pandemic shock. The Indian corporate has also benefited from the Modi government’s policy measures like corporate tax cuts, PLI initiatives, insolvency resolution, etc. Obviously, India, like many other developing countries, is not an absolute Utopia, but the outbound M&As by Indian companies reflect maturity and confidence, not desperation or malaise. Foreign deals such as the ones done by Sun Pharma, Tata, and Bajaj often complement and do not replace domestic investment. Undoubtedly, India’s private investment sector faces many challenges, including muted urban consumption in spots, global uncertainties and the China factor; however, linking a record surge in outbound acquisitions directly to supposed ‘slow growth’ is nothing but lazy causation. India remains the fastest-growing major economy India’s growth remains robust among top economies, with official data indicating a 7.6% GDP growth for fiscal year 2025-26, which is among the highest globally. Even amidst global energy shocks and tariffs, India’s growth projections by the IMF and others stand at around 6.5% for FY27. India remains the fastest-growing major economy globally. In the recent quarters, India’s private consumption and investment have witnessed significant acceleration, maintaining a strong upward trajectory. India has also registered record Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows in 2024-25, raking in $81 billion. This marked a 14% year-on-year increase. Yes, the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) exiting India is a challenge and the government needs to reform the tax architecture and bring it in sync with the rest of the major economies. However, to paint a gloomy picture of the Indian economy by conflation of FPI outflows with ‘FDI slowdowns’ to imply a hostile domestic business environment for outbound acquisitions, reeks of negativity bias. In the past few months alone, Microsoft committed to investing Rs 1.5 lakh crore (US$ 17.5 billion) in India. In February this year, Google announced a $15 billion investment in India over the next five years. Apple is also expanding its presence in India. But for the BBC, India’s foreign investment attraction game is weak. Notably, FDIs are a long-term game involving ownership stakes, tech transfer, management control, factories, operations and so on. FPIs, on the contrary, are short-term bets on stocks and bonds. This arena is highly volatile and is rooted in global liquidity, interest rate differentials, valuations, etc. Unlike FDIs, FPIs are driven by a deep sentiment of commitment to the Indian economy. The BBC, however, chose to blur the line between FDIs and FPIs to concoct a more general and alarmist ‘capital flight’ narrative and somehow link it to the outbound acquisitions by Indian companies. It is also amusing that when American, British, or European firms expand abroad for diversification, Western legacy media frames it as ‘routine diversification’ but when Indian companies do it, the same media outlets throw headlines implying ‘domestic failure’. Internet trolls BBC Interestingly, many Indian social media users called out the BBC’s framing of the Indian companies’ foreign acquisitions and even highlighted how the BBC itself is in a financial quagmire. In this vein, one X user wrote, “The article headline itself, is framed in a way that can subtly push readers toward a political conclusion & to build anti-government public opinion. Selection of Sun Pharma which earns most of its revenue internationally. Around 70% of its revenue comes from global markets.” Another one wrote, “Dear BB Chee So r u implying that the global US companies that bought n invested in other foreign countries was because the US growth slowed. Please get some therapy, you r dying.” Meanwhile, one X user had a rather interesting take on Sun Pharma’s Organon acquisition, and wrote, “Stupid post. Indian company bought American one because of Trump tariffs on branded imported drugs. If they have a American company then drugs can be manufactured and tariffs can be avoided. It is a strategic decision due to tariff levy not because of slow growth.” Another one wrote, “India grew at 7.6 % last quarter while BBC itself is facing financial problems and cutting down 10% of its workforce.” Notably, it was reported in April this year that the BBC is set to cut 2,000 jobs due to “financial pressures”. Earlier in February, the BBC announced a £600m cost-cutting plan, which included a reduction in the number of employees and the ending of some programming. From the Indian economy to politics: BBC loves to paint a bad picture of India In the recent months alone, the BBC has published biased and alarmist articles on Indian political, geopolitical and financial issues. Ahead of West Bengal elections, BBC peddled Muslim exclusion propaganda over the deletion of 90 lakh voter names in Special Intensive Revision. In March this year, BBC Hindi published an article with a panic-inducing headline, claiming that amid the raging Iran war and the resulting energy crisis, India was left with only 5 days of oil reserves. From the 2022 anti-Hindu Leicester violence, 2024 Islamist pogrom against Hindus in Bangladesh, propaganda documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, attempt at inciting Indian Gen-Z to stoke Nepal/Bangladesh-like violent regime change, to perpetual villainization of Indian Hindus, OpIndia has consistently documented the BBC’s anti-Hindu and anti-India bias.