CareEdge Global plans to add more than 55 sovereigns to its coverage, taking the number of countries it rates to around 100, as the two-year-old agency in GIFT City looks to expand beyond emerging markets and into developed economies, MD and Group CEO Mehul Pandya said.

The expansion would significantly widen the footprint of the international ratings arm of CareEdge Ratings, which began its global-scale sovereign ratings business in October 2024 with coverage of 39 countries. The agency now rates “45 sovereigns covering roughly 85 per cent of the world’s economy”, V Chandrasekaran, Chairman of CareEdge Ratings, said at an event marking CareEdge Global’s second anniversary at GIFT City on Wednesday evening.

“We began with ratings on 39 countries, where conviction, differentiated methodology and little else was certain. Today we stand at 45 sovereigns covering roughly 85 per cent of the world’s economy,” Chandrasekaran said. CareEdge Global is now the “fourth-largest in the world by sovereign coverage”, behind three US-based rating agencies, he said. 

The planned expansion comes as CareEdge seeks to establish itself as an alternative voice in a global credit-rating market dominated by established agencies with decades-long track records. Pandya said the agency was confident of a “calibrated expansion” into more jurisdictions. “I am confident of our own calibrated expansion to more jurisdictions and going beyond the emerging markets and right into the developed ones,” he said.

Pandya positioned the expansion as part of a broader change in the global economic order, arguing that the rise of multiple centres of economic activity requires a wider range of institutions assessing sovereign creditworthiness. “In the next 55-plus sovereigns that we are going to rate, and the next generation of analysts that we are going to train, the global order today with more centres of economic gravity, requires more than a duopoly assessing its creditworthiness,” he said.

For a ratings agency that is only two years old, the bigger challenge is not simply adding countries to its coverage but persuading investors, institutions and issuers to rely on its assessments. Pandya acknowledged that the agency had faced resistance from stakeholders accustomed to established rating providers. “I will not stand before this audience and suggest that the last two years were without resistance. I do not think it would be honest and I do not think this room will accept it,” he said.

“Stakeholders who have relied on a familiar set of voices that was for decades do not open their minds to a new entrant, however sound their approach,” Pandya said. He said the agency had anticipated a period of adjustment as institutions and investors became familiar with its methodology. CareEdge has sought to differentiate itself through its methodology rather than simply replicate the assessments of existing global agencies. “Our conclusions were not an echo of an existing rating. They were sound judgement reflective of authenticity,” Pandya said.

Chandrasekaran said differences between CareEdge’s assessments and those of established agencies were an intended consequence of having a genuinely differentiated methodology. “Genuinely different methodology should occasionally reach a different answer, otherwise it is not a fresh perspective, merely a new letterhead,” he said.

CareEdge said its assessments have subsequently gained validation in a number of markets. According to Chandrasekaran, ratings or outlook actions by established global agencies have moved towards CareEdge’s assessment in “22 of the 45 sovereigns” covered by the agency. He cited Morocco, Nigeria and Portugal among countries where CareEdge had identified strengthening or risks ahead of the broader consensus.

Pandya said the agency has assigned global-scale ratings to “nearly 400 corporates, financial institutions and sovereigns”. Chandrasekaran said CareEdge has rated foreign-currency debt issuances of **more than $35 billion**, with a pipeline that continues to deepen.

The expansion is also being supported by institutional participation. Chandrasekaran said “SBI and NSE IX have committed to take stakes in CareEdge Global”, while the RBI has extended accreditation covering all non-resident corporates. 

Published on October 8, 2026