India attracts capital. Why can’t it keep it?

Two analytical reforms might help. First, the RBI could publish, alongside its gross and net series, an indicator of average residence time—how long a typical dollar of FDI stays in India before repatriation or sell-down. The patience of capital is at least as important as its volume, and India does not currently track it. Second, the FDI scorecard at the Centre and in states needs reorientation. Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu have retained their FDI more successfully than other states because they have built industrial cluster ecosystems with deep supplier networks. Subsidy regimes without underlying institutional capacity show diminishing returns.