India's equity markets have performed impressively over the past decade, drawing retail investors, institutional capital, and global attention in equal measure. Yet the scale of investment required to sustain 7–8% growth — in infrastructure, manufacturing, clean energy, and urbanisation — cannot be funded through equity issuance alone. The absence of a deep, liquid bond market; the limited institutional participation in long-tenor debt; and the persistent mismatch between the demand for capital and the supply of investable instruments together constitute a structural constraint that India has not yet squarely addressed. For CFOs, this is not an abstract regulatory concern: it directly shapes the cost, availability, and terms of the capital their companies can access.

In this session, Ananth Narayan  will move beyond capital markets to examine India's broader financing architecture and where it falls short. Drawing on his experience as a SEBI board member and his two decades in banking and treasury, he will map the structural gaps in India's bond and institutional debt markets, examine why long-tenor financing remains scarce and expensive, and explore what policy, regulatory, and corporate action is needed to change this. The conversation will be candid and CFO-relevant: less about market regulation, more about what it means for how Indian companies should be thinking about their capital structures in the decade ahead.