On a Friday morning in September 2026, Indian financial markets confronted a familiar vulnerability: the long shadow cast by distant conflict over an import-dependent economy. As Brent crude climbed to $108 a barrel on the back of Houthi advances in Yemen and choked shipping lanes through the Red Sea and Strait of Hormuz, India found itself once again reminded that its prosperity is partly hostage to the stability of waters it does not control. The surge threatened not only inflation and corporate margins but the momentum of a busy IPO season, while foreign capital — ever sensitive to geopolit