Centre pulling back from public services, helping ‘Octopus class’ of crorepatis : Saurabh Mukherjea

Saurabh Mukherjea, Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Marcellus Investment Managers, delivered the keynote address at the Manorama Sambadyam Kerala Business Summit 2026 on ‘Navigating India’s Changing Economy: Opportunities for Investors.’ He discussed India’s evolving economic landscape and the investment opportunities it presents.

Starting with a bold question, “Who’s here to make money?”, Mukherjea began his presentation by explaining how Marcellus Investment Managers use Markowitz-style principles to invest across the world and across asset classes. The LSE graduate’s keynote address discussed key points from his book, Break Point: The Crisis of the Middle Class and The Future of Work, explaining that this is the Indian crisis that led to his business.

He noted the various factors that made up his business opportunity. As AI replaces many graduate-level or entry-level workers, a key point was the middle-class crisis of scarce jobs. This was accompanied by issues like shrinking real wages, a 7 to 9 per cent increase in the cost of living and exploding household debts. Moreover, he said smartphones acted as a necessary evil, curating feeds that influence minds and spending patterns, which can potentially lead to mounting loans and EMIs. He viewed this as a business opportunity in premium and ultra-premium domestic consumption.

The next factor Saurabh mentioned was the burgeoning class of crorepatis in India, who he claimed were growing with immense technical support and political connections. He alleged that this ‘octopus class’ is extending to various sectors of the economy that were once public. With the help of supporting statistics presented during the event, he claimed that the central government is pulling back from providing public services while politically funded mass consumption increases. He said issues like this create entrepreneurial opportunities for public services such as education and healthcare in the private sector.

The third factor was the largest global capex boom since World War II, especially in four sectors: defence and aerospace, power generation, ancillary capex by AI and luxury consumption. He highlighted the prospects this has for manufacturing exports.