India Begins Its 6-Week Election Process: Here's How It Could Impact Stocks

Millions of Indian citizens started the voting process Friday in what will be a six-week-long election process.

The election will serve as a referendum against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a populist politician seeking his third term as the country’s leader.

Narendra is a member of a right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, which adheres to a Hindu nationalist ideology.

He has supported economic initiatives that include allowing for more foreign investment into India's growing sectors. Because of India's massive population of nearly 1.5 billion, almost one-fifth of the world's population, the country is an attractive emerging market opportunity for foreign investors in the U.S. and other countries.

Under Narendra's leadership, the poverty rate in India has dropped nearly 10% in the last decade, coming down to around 80% from 90%. The poverty rate, measured by MacroTrends, is measured by the amount of people earning less than $5.50 U.S. dollars a day.

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But, while more people appear to be coming out of poverty in the country, India's economic growth has actually slowed down under Narendra compared to the previous administration of Manmohan Singh, according to the BBC.

The iShares MSCI Inda ETF INDA is up more than 90% since the fund's inception in 2012. Meanwhile, the Franklin FTSE India ETF FLIN is up more than 50% since it debuted in 2018.

Narendra is going for a third-straight term as the Prime Minister of India, but is not running without competition. A coalition of more than 20 parties, called the INDIA coalition, is opposing Narendra, but has not decided who will lead the country if successful.

Polls predict that Narendra will win, according to AP News. 

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