This is a unique Indian trait, at least among large economies. I used to get worked up about it until I read a Devdutt Pattanaik article, in which he pointed out that Hinduism stresses context, unlike Abrahammic religions, which stress contracts and rules. I got reconciled to this fact of life in India when I found that it’s not just the contract breaker who takes shelter behind changed context to breach some of the terms. Even victims of broken contracts in India only seem to stress context. e.g. In the recent PMC Bank fracas, customers’ complaints are all about “I’ve scheduled surgery / daughter’s marriage / children’s college fees, now they’re all canceled because I can’t withdraw my money from PMC Bank”. Not one customer I’ve heard has said, “By contract, the amount in my bank account is payable to me on demand. I want it now. The bank had bloodly well give it to me.” IMO foreign investors in India have already factored the occasional breach of contract into their investment model. As long as incidents of breach don’t exceed a threshold percentage, I don’t see this leading to any significant drop in foreign investments in India. While I personally hold contracts sacrosanct, as a nation we’re where we are. That’s not going to change anytime soon. Then, there are those contracts that slip in a “terms are subject to review at a later date if required” clause. They totally provide a legal escape route for the signatory to renege on the terms of the contract at will. I’ve seen a couple of contracts like that myself where the counter-signatory is a large company with, presumably, a large legal department. I was amazed at how they missed this clause before signing the contract but they did.