ICC Wealth Management Summit assessing 2025 as a Pivotal Moment Defined by Power Shifts, Policy Transitions, Ideological Currents and India’s Expanding Global Footprint. Photo by Sanchita Chatterjee/BS News Agency.
SanchitaChatterjee, BS News Agency, Kolkata: ICC organised the ICC Wealth Management Summit 2025, bringing together industry leaders, policymakers and global advisors for wide-ranging discussions that spanned cutting-edge wealth management trends, India’s economic transformation, and the shifting geopolitical landscape. The summit was attended by Mr. Ajay Bisaria, Global Advisor to Asset Management Companies, author and former diplomat; Mr. Brij Bhushan Agarwal, President, Indian Chamber of Commerce; Dr. Rajeev Singh, Director General, ICC, who collectively examined subjects ranging from personalised wealth strategies and technology-driven financial models to India’s reform trajectory, trade dynamics, and the geopolitical forces reshaping global markets.
Mr. Ajay Bisaria, Global Advisor to Asset Management Companies, author and former diplomat, said at the ICC Wealth Management Summit 2025 that India today stands at a defining moment as it navigates both global disruptions and critical domestic transitions. He noted that India's democratic and social frameworks had remained broadly stable over the past eight years, but emphasised that the economic transformation remained the country’s central imperative. “With a GDP growth rate of 6.5%, India is the world’s fastest-growing major economy, yet our per-capita income—about USD 3,000—places us around 128th globally,” he said, adding that manufacturing growth continued to lag behind national aspirations while agriculture contributed only 17% of GDP, signalling structural imbalance and unrealised potential.
Bisaria emphasised that India’s internal reform journey since 1991 had created the foundation for high future growth. He highlighted the Goods and Services Tax as a milestone that unified the internal market and cited UPI as a revolution in digital finance. He also pointed to the Jan Dhan–Aadhaar–Mobile trinity for transforming welfare delivery, banking reforms that strengthened institutions and massive nationwide investments in highways, ports, airports and digital networks that collectively improved economic efficiency. “These reforms give India a realistic opportunity to pursue 8% long-term growth over the next 25 years — an ambition that is now politically articulated,” he stated.
Turning to foreign policy, Bisaria described India’s evolution from Nehru’s non-alignment to a sophisticated multi-alignment era. He noted External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s framing of a diplomacy that “engages America, manages China, cultivates Europe, reassures Russia, partners with Japan and the Global South, and prioritises the neighbourhood.” Yet he cautioned that India may now need to manage its relationship with the United States even more carefully than with China due to the US’s centrality in global economic governance and strategic technology.