MIT Associate Professor Jason Jackson's book 'Traders, Speculators, and Captains of Industry' examines how moral beliefs shaped India's foreign investment policy from the 1980s through the 2010s. Jackson argues that Indian policymakers evaluated both foreign and domestic firms through 'moral categories of capitalist legitimacy' — judging whether companies would invest in technology, create good jobs, and benefit society broadly, or merely extract resources. The Coca-Cola expulsion in the late 1970s under Minister George Fernandes illustrates this dynamic: Coca-Cola was seen as exploitative (a 'New East India Company'), its removal allowed Indian brands like Thums Up to flourish, yet Thums Up's eventual sale to Coca-Cola raised questions about whether its founder was a true entrepreneur or an opportunist. Jackson contends that moral frameworks are an underappreciated but powerful force in economic policymaking globally.
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