India, July 16 -- Somewhere in the last 18 months, India quietly rewired its trade map. The European Union (EU) deal was concluded in January, described by the European Commission's own president as the "mother of all deals." The UK's Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement entered into force on July 15. The EFTA partnership with Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein has already been running for close to a year. Talks are moving with Israel, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Canada and the US. This is the most consequential stretch of Indian trade policy in a long time.

The scale is worth sitting with. The EU agreement alone stitches together roughly two billion people and close to a quarter of global GDP into what is now the wor...