For years, ordinary Indians wanting to invest in global markets—in Apple, in Nvidia, in a commodities fund— had two legitimate options, both with serious limitations. The first was the Liberalised Remittance Scheme, or LRS, which lets every Indian resident send up to $250,000 abroad each year for investment. The second was feeder funds—India-domiciled funds that route money into offshore funds. But market regulator Sebi put a collective cap of $7 billion on these, and that cap has been hit. The door is, for practical purposes, closed.
