Nepal and related keywords such as protests, arson, and fire have already turned a protest by Nepal's Gen-Z into viral-fodder in the last two days.
However, emerging news-reports and social chatter reflects additional worries to Indians and India Inc.
On Wednesday, videos of Hilton Kathmandu set ablaze appeared in social feed showing what appeared like the charred remains of a five-star hotel. Some videos also featured an adjacent compound wall reading the letters - "WAKE UP NEPAL"
A five-star hotel set ablaze has left many netizens pondering on the future of investments and institutions in Nepal. Amid tweets of stranded Indians, many netizens wondered about how protests would affect Indians and Indian business-interests in Kathmandu.
BUSINESS CONNECTIONS
Nepal, a country that shares a 1,751 kilometer border with India has witnessed a thriving investment experience with her neighbor. Data from the Indian consulate in Kathmandu estimates funding from Indian corporates and businesses at $777 million. However, this official data often does not include details such as trade conducted at porous Urban-Haats at India-Nepal Border or the employment value or the total investment size from India into Nepal.
As on date, data from India's commerce ministry shows Nepal as India's 17th largest export destination, with goods estimated at $64.1 billion sourced from India into Nepal.
It is pertinent to note that India contributes a whopping 64.1 percent of Nepal's total trade. Also, in recent years, India had provisioned many loans and schemes to Nepal, LOCs (Letter of Credits) extended by EXIM Bank, for example.
STOCK MARKETS
On Wednesday, the PTI reported Indian FMCG companies such as Dabur, ITC (Surya Nepal), Britannia Industries and others operating in Nepal, as keeping a close check on the situation in Nepal. There were concerns among FMCG stocks and their investments. For reference, 3 percent of revenues for Varun Beverages (an Indian listed entity), were from Nepal.
Abneesh Roy, the Executive Director for Research at Nuvama Institutional Securities was quoted in a PTI report comparing the Nepal situation with the unrest in Bangladesh. He said, "slightly similar situation had happened in Bangladesh but we did not see any major long-term impact on Marico, but Emami, etc, we did see an impact."
FMCG brands such as Reliance Retail and Patanjali too have presence in Nepal. Besides, 150 other Indian firms as having reportedly contributed to Nepal's FDI.
Nepal stock markets, meanwhile, were trading at levels of 2,650. As of the time of publishing this article, the NEPSE index had lost 86 points since the month of September - closing at 2672.25.
The NEPSE has corrected from its 52-week highs of 3025 as on July 31, 2025 to 2672.25 as on Wednesday. A similar bearish trend was recorded on the index in the month of March 2025.
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