Engaging India is an online column analysing the issues, trends and forces behind the business and politics shaping India and its impact on the world. Engaging India appears on Thursday mornings exclusively on FT.com India, a dedicated online section on India, and is written by Jo Johnson, the Financial Times’ South Asia bureau chief; Amy Yee, New Delhi correspondent; and Joe Leahy, Mumbai correspondent.

During one of the first matches of the Indian Premier League, the country’s glitzy new cricket tournament, the spectators near me kept swarming to the edge of the balcony and looking down into the crowd below.