Look at the visual above carefully and spend a few minutes digesting this.

The United States alone represents $67.4 trillion of listed equity wealth in this illustration. China is at $15.3 trillion, followed by Japan, Hong Kong, India and many other markets.

For an Indian investor, there is a fascinating question hidden inside these numbers.

If the world’s businesses are global, why should our portfolios remain overwhelmingly local?

We happily use an American smartphone, watch content on a global streaming platform, buy products manufactured across countries, travel on foreign airlines and use technology created by companies scattered around the world. Our lives became global long ago. Our portfolios have not.

When it comes to investing, many of us still behave as though the opportunity set ends at our national border. This is not an argument against India. I remain enormously optimistic about India’s long-term opportunity. However, believing deeply in India and investing globally are not contradictory ideas.

Diversification is not about choosing which country will win… It is about admitting that we don’t know.

The next extraordinary business may emerge from America, India, Europe, Japan or somewhere we are barely looking today. Entire industries may be dominated by companies outside our home market. Innovation does not carry a passport, and neither does human enterprise.

There is also something called “home bias” We naturally feel safer investing in what is familiar. Familiarity and diversification though are not the same thing.

Your financial life may already be deeply connected to India through your career, business, home, income and other assets. Why must every rupee of your investment portfolio make the same geographical bet?

The real question is not India or the world? It is India and the world.

Investing globally is not about being less optimistic about your own country. It is about being optimistic about human progress everywhere. The key point is that if wealth creation is global, perhaps our ownership should be too.