This is just the tip of the iceberg. 

From Walmart to Coca-Cola, mainstream global companies have tried and tested their luck in India before scaling globally, making headway with experiments or novel strategies.

Strategic Location, Technology Adoption

But why India? Well, the reasons are manifold and apparent: firstly, diversity of languages, income levels, and consumption patterns.

If you want it for everyone else and you want to create a language-agnostic product, you do it in India. You want a product that can survive extreme heat, extreme cold, extreme dust, and extreme humidity; you test it physically in India

— Kim Collaco, Partner (Enterprise Strategy), Baker Tilly ASA

Then, of course, the strategic location and large-scale adoption of technology.

But India's burgeoning startup ecosystem reversed the trend.

Now, homegrown startups have taken a cue from global firms: "let's test in India first, then scale globally".

This is facilitated by the "Make in India" for the world strategy, which prioritises production-linked incentives (PLI) across sectors, improved ease-of-doing business, sector-specific policies, and inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI). Through these strategies, the government has been making attempts to woo foreign investment.

If firms are indeed "building in India" for the world, they also have to strictly adhere to the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Rules, 2025, industry experts say. 

AI Adoption

“What we have in India is leagues ahead of what we will have elsewhere – in terms of industry-specific growth, grassroots innovations, financial digital payments, financial innovation, artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, and design innovation,” Collaco further highlights.

In this crisis-driven global order, recalibration is a hedge against uncertainty. India, given its demographic dividend, its positioning as a strategic growth market, growing broad-based investment in various sectors, and relative stability amid global turmoil, may hold the key to this stability that investors seek.

India doesn't just test products, it stress-tests them. The market's sheer diversity of language, income, and expectation creates conditions no controlled environment can replicate. For years, global firms treated India as a secondary market to be adapted for. That thinking has quietly reversed, driven by rising incomes and a more enabling policy environment. Cracking this market is the most rigorous way to build something that truly scales. India has become the world’s most credible launchpad

— Ashish Goel, CEO & Co-Founder, Optimist, a technology-driven startup
 
For this reason, firms have quietly been leveraging India’s growth engine as a testing ground before scaling globally. Many companies quietly build and innovate in India, designing products "for the world," not just for the Indian market.

The global supply chain has been disrupted since 2025, prompting global firms to diversify the supply routes into two main channels: one for the US and Europe, and another for Asia and global markets. India capitalised on this shift by diversifying its own trade and by signing more trade agreements, including the free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU).
 
More and more global firms have been pushing to make the most of this growth momentum. The burgeoning startup ecosystem has served as a catalyst for this shift.

For global firms, expansion opportunities are aplenty here, but not for its own firms, as India is often the lab or a live laboratory for others, but not itself.

But this trend has seen a reversal in recent times.

'Test In India' Strategy

Of late, the "test in India" strategy has been largely adopted by Indian startups leveraging the digital infrastructure.

This is primarily driven by the burgeoning startup ecosystem and rapid AI adoption.

"There is a growing trend of global firms coming to India. At the same time, we also see Indian firms gaining ground in AI integration by utilising the resources here," Amal Phillip, an associate with a global auditing firm, told The Secretariat.

The adoption of the digital ecosystem to scale state-of-the-art initiatives is not limited to the private sector alone.

Companies are exposed to multiple use cases at once, often forcing quicker iteration and more practical decision-making. If something works here, it usually means it has been tested across varied conditions and can hold its own elsewhere.

— Bharath Krishna Rao, CEO & Co-Founder, Emobi, a Bengaluru-based EV startup

Rao further highlights that this is the reason why many firms no longer treat India as a secondary market to enter later, but as a place to get the fundamentals right early, refining products, understanding real customer behaviour, and building solutions that are ready to scale with confidence across different geographies.

Indian Carbon Market Portal

The recent launch of the Indian Carbon Market (ICM) Portal is a case in point. The government initiative serves as a central digital platform for implementing and administering the carbon market.

It serves as a platform for policymakers, industry experts, and global stakeholders. Initially launched in India, the digital platform will soon scale globally, bringing in global stakeholders to improve data visibility, streamline processes, and for wider industry engagement with regard to the carbon market. It also aims to enhance the regulatory framework through the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS).

Currently, the CCTS projects on the ICM portal are only for Indian projects. However, this platform will be aiming for global interoperability. Each CCTS project follows the global stakeholder consultation process, through which global stakeholders can participate

— Manish Dabkara, Chairman and Managing Director, EKI Energy Services, and President, Carbon Markets Association of India

With more and more firms innovating, creating, testing, experimenting, and even rewriting their core business algorithm in India, the thrust is now on sustaining the momentum. At the same time, communities must be engaged, giving impetus to job creation.

The intense competition in India makes it an ideal testing ground for both homegrown and global firms. With that said, it should be ensured that the strategies implemented in India should not come at the cost of data sovereignty, regulatory norms, environmental standards, or developmental initiatives.