India deserves a different valuation framework in the current regime, says Delorean Partners' Amit Bhartia

Amit Bhartia, founder of Delorean Partners and portfolio manager at Willow Run Capital, argues that India's relative P/E premium falling below long-term averages versus the US and emerging markets is misleading and that investors should instead ask what multiple India deserves in the current regime. He flags three concerns: deterioration in India's relative earnings performance since around September 2025, a more challenging geopolitical backdrop as US scrutiny of India increases and India's traditional strategic counterweight weakens, and a multi-year high in his Grassroots Distress Index which combines real entry-level IT salaries, microfinance delinquencies, and household net financial savings. Bhartia cautions investors against relying on historical valuation benchmarks that average across regimes that may not be comparable.