The Tiger and the Turul: Why a Fast-Reforming India Can Be Hungary’s Strategic Anchor in a Fragmented World

We stand at a critical juncture, witnessing a deep reordering of the global economic architecture. The comfortable era of seamless globalization is yielding to a landscape increasingly fractured by protectionism, where trade barriers are rising just as fast as political temperatures. The recent imposition of tariffs by large economies serves as a stark reminder of this volatility, wrote Anshuman Gaur, Ambassador of India to Hungary.

Flag of India (Photo: SOPA Images/Source: LightRocket)

Yet, precisely at this moment of global turbulence, the Indian economy has signalled not just resilience, but a profound resurgence. Recent data confirms that India’s economy grew at a blistering 8.2% in the last quarter. That we achieved this acceleration despite punitive external tariffs is not a statistical fluke; it is the irrefutable proof of a decade of structural transformation under enlightened leadership. India is no longer merely an export-dependent economy vulnerable to Western economic cycles; it is now a domestic consumption-driven powerhouse, reinforced by a decade of relentless supply-side reforms. For Hungarian businesses seeking a dependable partner, a strategic sourcing destination, or a future market, this fundamental distinction is vital.

 Anshuman Gaur, Ambassador of India to Hungary

The engine driving this accelerated growth is a systematic overhaul of India’s industrial hardware. We started with the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which seamlessly unified a massive economy into a single common market. Now, Prime Minister Modi’s government has delivered the crucial "software update" that global investors have long awaited: the implementation of four ground-breaking Labour Codes. For decades, India’s labor market suffered from a paradox, governed by a maze of 29 archaic central laws that fostered rigidity for businesses while denying universal security to workers. The new Codes—consolidating these into the Code on Wages, the Industrial Relations Code, the Code on Social Security, and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code—have strategically dismantled this complexity, replacing it with clarity and moving from litigation toward digitization.

For a Hungarian CEO, the implications of these reforms are not abstract, but practical and immediate. Consider the new Industrial Relations Code, which introduces Fixed Term Employment. This reform allows companies to hire skilled workers for specific project durations with the same benefits as permanent employees, crucially without the cumbersome bureaucratic hurdles of the past. For Hungary’s world-class automotive component sector, which often faces cyclical demand, this flexibility is a true game-changer, facilitating dynamic scaling and transforming India from a rigid labour market into an agile production hub.

Crucially, these reforms demonstrate an insightful balance of flexibility with empathy. The Code on Social Security is a global pioneer by extending safety nets—including pension and insurance—to the burgeoning gig and platform workforce. By formalizing the gig economy, India is strategically expanding its consuming middle class, ensuring that the workers who build our economy can also afford to buy the products sold in it. This deliberate social stability is the bedrock of long-term profitability for foreign investors. Furthermore, the "compliance tax" on management time has been slashed; the Occupational Safety Code now mandates a single license for staffing firms and has digitized the filing of returns. The new India runs on digital dashboards, a development that perfectly aligns with the experience of modern Hungarian firms, allowing them to plug into the Indian ecosystem with the same ease as they would in the EU.

These reforms are merely one pillar of the "India Advantage". The second is our unparalleled digital public infrastructure. With the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India processes over 10 billion real-time transactions monthly. We have effectively built a digital highway that connects even the remotest village to the global market. Whether you are a Hungarian tech SME or a water management firm like Organica—which is already demonstrating stellar work in India—this infrastructure dramatically lowers the cost of customer acquisition and service delivery.

The strategic case for a deeper India-Hungary partnership is undeniable. As the European Union and India progress towards a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the tariff walls between our markets are set to crumble. However, the wise investor does not wait for the treaty to be signed; they position themselves beforehand to capture the full benefit. Hungarian businesses have a unique, time-sensitive opportunity to leverage their "first-mover" advantage. In pharmaceuticals, where giants like Gedeon Richter have long-respected footprints, the demand for high-quality healthcare among India’s 1.4 billion people offers a growth trajectory unmatched in aging Europe. Similarly, in water technology, India’s Jal Jeevan Mission—the world’s largest water access program—needs exactly the kind of expertise Budapest is famous for.

The narrative that India is "complex" is a relic of the past. The new India is an economy that grows at 8.2% when the world slows down. It is a nation that responds to 50% external tariffs not with panic, but with internal reform and robust domestic demand. We have streamlined our laws, digitized our systems, and opened our doors. The partnership between India and Hungary has always been historic, rooted in cultural and intellectual exchange. It is now time to make it deeply economic. I invite Hungarian enterprise to look to India, not just for a market, but for a partner that offers stability, scale, and shared prosperity in an unpredictable world.

(The author is the Ambassador of India to Hungary)