Narendra Modi has promised to revive Indian growth and encourage foreign investment on the first day of voting for the 800m eligible Indians taking part in the world’s biggest democratic exercise.

Mr Modi’s opposition Bharatiya Janata party is expected to defeat the demoralised Congress party, which has been in power at the head of coalition governments for the past decade. Nine separate voting days will culminate in a count on May 16; yesterday voters cast their ballot in seven of the 543 constituencies.

Despite pledging to increase foreign investment, the BJP yielded to its supporters among the country’s millions of small shopkeepers and excluded supermarkets and department stores from the list of sectors to which it wants to attract overseas capital.