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The Essential Podcast from S&P Global is dedicated to sharing essential intelligence with those working in and affected by financial markets. Host Nathan Hunt focuses on those issues of immediate importance to global financial markets – macroeconomic trends, the credit cycle, climate risk, energy transition, and global trade – in interviews with subject matter experts from around the world.

Jul 16, 2026

In this episode of the Look Forward podcast, S&P Global experts Deepa Kumar and Gauri Jauhar examine how the Middle East conflict is stress-testing India’s economy through energy dependence, trade exposure, remittances, currency pressure, inflation, and geopolitical balancing. They discuss why this shock is more multi-layered than past crises and how India’s resilience is being challenged even as government support, infrastructure spending, and private-sector cost absorption continue to provide buffers.

The conversation also explores how India is using the crisis to accelerate longer-term reforms in energy security, industrial policy, and global trade strategy. From diversifying oil and gas suppliers and expanding storage capacity to leveraging free trade agreements, production-linked incentives, renewables, nuclear, and domestic exploration, the episode frames the current moment not only as a test of resilience but as a potential catalyst for India’s next phase of transformation.