India has emerged as one of the most strategically significant destinations for global business, presenting multinational enterprises with a unique confluence of high-growth potential, institutional complexity, and socio-cultural heterogeneity. This systematic literature review synthesises extant scholarship on global business strategy in India, examining how multinational corporations navigate market entry modes, competitive dynamics, institutional voids, and sustainability imperatives within one of the world’s largest and most diverse economies. Following a structured database search and screening protocol we identify a final sample of 40 peer-reviewed sources, comprising 16 empirical and contextual studies published between 2010 and 2024 that directly examine multinational enterprise (MNE) strategy in India, and 24 foundational works in international business and institutional economics whose original contributions, though several predate 2010, remain the standard reference points for the theoretical frameworks applied throughout, organised into four principal thematic clusters: (1) market entry and ownership configurations, (2) institutional environment and regulatory adaptation, (3) competitive strategy and innovation management, and (4) sustainable and responsible business practices. Our synthesis reveals that successful international business strategy in India depends critically on institutional ambidexterity, localisation of value chains, and strategic partnerships that bridge formal and informal institutional gaps. We highlight a specific gap left open by prior single-theme reviews, the absence of any synthesis that integrates market entry, institutional adaptation, competitive strategy, and sustainability within a single contemporary account of India, and address it directly. The review contributes to international business theory by contextualising established frameworks within the Indian setting and proposes an integrative framework, detailed in Section 6, that explains how market entry, institutional adaptation, innovation strategy, and sustainability function as interdependent dimensions of MNE strategy in emerging markets.