'Make the rules open': Lord Swraj Paul's long campaign for transparent FDI

The NRI industrialist's on-record pitch for clear sectoral caps and minimal approvals anticipated today's ease-of-doing-business push

Lord Swraj Paul (1931–2025), founder of Caparo and one of the most prominent India-born industrialists in Britain, died in London at the age of 94. A life peer in the House of Lords since 1996, Paul built a global metals-engineering footprint and played a distinctive role in India-UK economic ties.

 

Across interviews and public remarks, Paul returned to a simple prescription: India should declare sectoral foreign investment limits and then get out of the way — no case-by-case approvals, no ambiguity. “Specify the level of permitted foreign investment in each sector and let companies invest without individual approval procedures,” he argued in 2013, calling for open, transparent rules to channel capital and talent.

 

That line prefigured the subsequent policy drift towards automatic routes, clearer caps, and easing of approvals. Paul’s framing was investor-centric but also India-centric: Transparency reduces discretion, lowers transaction costs, and signals seriousness to long-horizon manufacturers. It also aligns with his longer-standing view that India’s growth prospects rest on rule clarity and the energy of a skilled workforce.

 

The same pragmatism coloured his politics. He could praise Indira Gandhi and tell Prime Minister Narendra Modi so without hedging — an indicator of a bridge-builder who sought outcomes over camps. The stance helped him act as a conduit across London and New Delhi, engaging successive governments while retaining an investor’s impatience with process opacity.

 

In India, his 1980s bids for Escorts and DCM forced a reckoning with hostile takeovers and shareholder rights — an inflexion point in corporate history. He remained a vocal advocate of transparent rules for investors and of manufacturing-led growth.

 

As India deepens manufacturing and capital-goods ambitions, Paul’s doctrine reads contemporary: Publish the rules, widen the automatic window, measure success by factories built and skills absorbed — not by files moved. In an era when supply chains seek predictability, the message remains sharp: Transparency is a competitive advantage.