Global passive funds tracking broad equity benchmarks have a significantly smaller allocation to India than the country’s share of global market capitalisation and economic output, leaving the world’s fastest-growing major economy structurally underrepresented in benchmark portfolios.
India’s effective weight in global equity benchmarks is about 1.3%, based on its 11.3% weight in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index and the roughly 11% share of emerging markets in the MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI), according to MSCI data and brokerage research from Motilal Oswal Financial Services and JM Financial.
That compares with an estimated 3% share of global market capitalisation and roughly 3% of global nominal GDP in dollar terms.
India’s weight in the MSCI EM Index has fallen to 11.3% in August 2026 from 16.2% a year earlier. The weight fluctuates with market movements and changes in index composition.
“India's share in MSCI EM has fallen to around 11%, though this keeps on fluctuating, and MSCI EM in turn has a similar weightage in MSCI ACWI, which means India's share in MSCI ACWI is in the 1.3% approximate range,” said Harsh Gupta Madhusudan, fund manager and chief India strategist at Ionic Wealth.