In an exclusive interview to ET, Goenka, who is the vice-chairman of RPG Group, a $ 5.2 billion conglomerate with interests in the areas of automotive tyres, infrastructure, pharma, IT, energy, batted for emphasis on further ease of doing business, while playing down concerns around foreign capital outflows, saying these would return as valuations in the stock market had corrected.
“Our expectation is interest rates should be left the way they are,” Goenka said, adding that the price pressures were largely supply side and would not get resolved by raising interest rates at this point.
He also said intervention in rupee, which has been under pressure since the beginning of the West Asia conflict, should be restricted only to minimising volatility. The Reserve Bank’s monetary policy committee began its meeting Wednesday and governor Sanjay Malhotra will announce the decision on June 5.
On growth, he said the ongoing crisis in West Asia is likely to shave off 0.5-1% from India’s GDP growth in 2026-27. “The initial situation of high impact, high uncertainty has now stabilised to a certain extent … The larger impact of inflation has still not fully played out… Margins are going to be under pressure as crude prices have risen and low-cost inventory is depleting, ” Goenka said, adding that the industry will have to manage the pain on the margins.
“…it’s not going to be easy,” he cautioned, saying that balance sheets may get a little stressed or capex get delayed as margins decline.
FTA, manufacturing
The Ficci president said that the Indian industry needs to be more proactive to leverage the various free trade agreements (FTA) signed recently.FTAs are an enabler, he noted, but companies must prepare well to understand these markets, set up channels and build relationships.
Key sunrise sectors such as data centers and semiconductors, along with high employment sectors including textiles and leather should be focus areas of India’s manufacturing plan, according to Goenka.
“We have to keep looking at a few key sectors that the government identifies…These are areas which are very highly impacted with the FTAs also coming in. A mixed view on established high job creation and sunrise sectors focus has to be there,” he explained.
Foreign inflows
On the issue of slowing foreign inflows into India, Goenka said: “I think Indian markets were fairly overvalued over the last year and a half…There has been a correction and that will possibly lead to FPIs coming back”.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have been net sellers in Indian equities in recent months as global investors rebalance portfolios and allocate more capital towards the US market. Net FDI inflows were $7.7 billion in FY26, as against $1 billion in 2024-25 while gross inward FDI inflows were $94.5 billion in 2025-26, up from $80.6 billion a year ago.
Moreover, the initial public offerings (IPO) that happened last year is also an indicator of investor confidence. “People have invested. They’ve seen a good return. Hopefully they will come back for the next stage of investments and startups and have an opportunity,” he said.