The Reserve Bank of India took emergency action at the weekend to pump liquidity into the local banking system amid mounting concerns that the global financial crisis will cut significantly India’s economic growth.

The threat of a slowdown is also being felt by India’s richest 10 billionaires, who control some of the country’s biggest companies and have suffered $206.5bn (€161bn, £127bn) in paper losses this year, according to an FT analysis. With foreign investors helping drive down Mumbai’s main stock market index by 52 per cent since January, the valuations of their listed companies have been battered.