Mehul Pandya, Managing Director And Group Ceo, Care Ratings Limited

CARE Ratings Limited has grown to be one of the top ten credit rating agencies globally. What have been the key milestones and strategies behind this growth, particularly in the Indian market?
CARE Ratings Limited is a full-service rating agency and currently the second largest in India. Achieving and maintaining this position in a highly competitive market—dominated by the three global leaders, S&P, Moody’s, and Fitch through their Indian subsidiaries—has been a defining achievement for us. This consistency reflects our deep commitment to the quality of our ratings, the strength of our customer service, and the value we place on building enduring relationships with stakeholders. It also highlights the trust that investors and issuers have placed in us over the years.

One of the cornerstones of our success has been our unwavering focus on the ratings business. While many peers have diversified aggressively, we have prioritised our core expertise, ensuring that our methodologies remain rigorous and our analyses thorough. This singular approach has kept us relevant in an evolving market and ensured that we remain a trusted voice for investors.

In parallel, our expanding global footprint has given us valuable insight into international risk dynamics and rating trends. This cross-border experience strengthens our ability to contextualise credit risk, particularly in emerging markets. We are also carefully diversifying into analytical adjacencies, but in a measured manner that complements rather than dilutes our primary focus.

What drives your vision for Africa, and how do you see the region evolving in terms of credit markets and investor confidence?
Our connection to Africa is long-standing. For over a decade, we have operated in Mauritius—a jurisdiction that serves as both a financial hub and a gateway to the continent. Through this base, we have gained a deep appreciation of Africa’s vast economic potential, as well as the structural challenges it faces in building mature financial markets.

Drawing from our experience in both the Indian and Mauritian markets, we believe that developing local currency financial and credit markets should be a top priority for African policymakers and regulators. Such development would reduce dependency on foreign capital, build robust domestic savings pools, and mitigate the risks associated with currency fluctuations.

Strengthening local markets would also create more resilient economies capable of funding essential infrastructure, climate change adaptation, and other national priorities without being unduly vulnerable to shifts in global capital flows. Over time, these structural improvements would foster greater investor confidence, which is crucial for long-term, sustainable growth.

What are some of the most impactful partnerships and policy contributions the agency has made in Mauritius?
In Mauritius, CARE Ratings Limited has become a dominant force, holding a 98% market share in the rated universe and having rated debt instruments worth more than US$3 billion. This influence has brought greater transparency to the country’s capital markets and banking system, enabling institutional investors and banks to make more informed credit and investment decisions.

Our success in Mauritius has been made possible by strong regulatory support. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) licensed us as a rating agency, and the Bank of Mauritius (BoM) recognised us as an External Credit Assessment Institution—both critical enablers of our market role. Equally important has been the trust and support of our equity partners: the African Development Bank (AfDB), MCB Equity Fund, and SBM Holdings.

Over the past decade, we have helped diversify the investor base beyond banks to include insurance companies, pension funds, and fund managers. We have also expanded the issuer base to more than 100 companies and contributed to building a credible local currency bond yield curve—an essential benchmark for pricing and investment decisions.

How do you see CARE Ratings Limited’s approach differing from other global agencies, and what role will your sovereign risk assessments play for emerging economies, especially in Africa?
Our sovereign ratings methodology is grounded in five key pillars: economic structure and resilience; fiscal strength; external position and linkages; monetary and financial stability; and institutions and governance quality. For each pillar, we analyse a mix of quantitative and qualitative indicators to evaluate a country’s capacity to meet its debt obligations over the long term.

What distinguishes our approach is our emphasis on transparency and consistency. We apply the same thresholds and benchmarks across all economies, regardless of income level or development stage, and we place a stronger reliance on objective, data-driven parameters—particularly in our economic and fiscal assessments. This approach reduces subjectivity and builds investor confidence in the comparability of our ratings.

We also focus on unique factors often overlooked by others. For example, we use capital expenditure (Gross Fixed Capital Formation) as a leading indicator of an economy’s future growth potential. We assess progress on energy transition as part of our sustainability analysis. We evaluate the extent of domestic funding in government finance, as this reduces exposure to volatile international markets. And we closely examine an economy’s resilience—its ability to withstand shocks and recover from crises.

By combining methodological rigour with a strong local presence in Africa, we aim to deliver sovereign ratings that are both globally consistent and locally relevant—helping investors, regulators, and policymakers make better-informed decisions.