Trump Tariffs: Time For India To Turn Crisis Into Opportunity, Says Anand Mahindra

With US President Donald Trump setting the total tariff on India at 50% Anand Mahindra, chairperson of the Mahindra Group, has called on India to proactively harness the ongoing global tariff disruptions to drive transformative domestic reform.

In his post on X, Mahindra drew parallels with the 1991 foreign exchange crisis that triggered India’s liberalisation. Mahindra suggests that the current wave of trade protectionism — especially the US-led tariff war — could be a similar inflection point.

"These ‘unintended consequences’ could become long-term positives for global growth," Mahindra noted.

He cited examples from Europe and Canada and highlighted how nations are already adapting to the evolving global economic landscape in unexpected but potentially positive ways.

In Europe, rising geopolitical tensions have prompted France and Germany to raise defence spending, while Germany’s softening stance on fiscal orthodoxy may lead to an economic revival.

Similarly, in Canada, long-standing interprovincial trade barriers are being dismantled, pushing the country closer to a common internal market and boosting its economic resilience.

He argued that India too must shape a virtuous consequence for itself rather than merely react to external developments.

Mahindra in his post laid out two key policy imperatives. First, he emphasised the urgent need to radically improve India’s ease of doing business. He proposed creating a truly functional single-window clearance system for investments. Speed, simplicity, and predictability in approvals, he argued, would make India a magnet for global capital in search of stable alternatives.

Second, Mahindra urged India to unlock the untapped potential of tourism as a foreign exchange and employment generator. He called for accelerated visa processing, high-quality tourist facilitation, and the development of secure, sanitary tourism corridors around existing hotspots to international standards.

Beyond these, he proposed a broader action agenda: enhanced liquidity and support for MSMEs, faster infrastructure development, a deeper manufacturing push through expanded PLI schemes, and rationalised import duties on manufacturing inputs to improve competitiveness.