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ARTICLE · 12 AUGUST 2026

Decoding India's Proposed Foreign Investment Regime

Corporate Professionals - Advisors & Advocates
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The Reserve Bank of India (“RBI”), the nodal authority for determining rules and regulations concerning foreign investment in India, has recently released the draft Foreign Exchange Management (Foreign Investment) Rules, 2026 (“Draft Rules”), to replace the existing Foreign Exchange Management (Non-debt Instruments) Rules, 2019 (“2019 NDI Rules”). The draft rules are currently open for public comments till 31st August, 2026. In this article, we discuss how the draft rules differ from the existing statutory framework.

IndiaGovernment, Public Sector
Ankit Singhi
Ankit Singhi
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The Reserve Bank of India (“RBI”), the nodal authority for determining rules and regulations concerning foreign investment in India, has recently released the draft Foreign Exchange Management (Foreign Investment) Rules, 2026 (“Draft Rules”), to replace the existing Foreign Exchange Management (Non-debt Instruments) Rules, 2019 (“2019 NDI Rules”). The draft rules are currently open for public comments till 31st August, 2026. In this article, we discuss how the draft rules differ from the existing statutory framework.   

  1. The big picture: from a self-contained code to a layered architecture

The most consequential change in the Draft Rules is not any single definition — it is the architecture of the regulation itself.

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