Using annual data over forty years from 1975 to 2014, this study investigates the gross domestic product (GDP) growth and the conditional volatility of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Indian subcontinent. The study reports the rising trends of both FDI and GDP and documents that the greater‐than‐expected FDI due to innovative shocks or policy innovations positively influences conditional volatility of FDI which, in turn, positively contributes to the economic growth/development. The conditional volatility used in the study is the variance derived from the diagnostically selected exponential GARCH (EGARCH) model. The study also reports the causality of both the FDI and its volatility across borders. More specifically, it reports bidirectional causality of FDI between India and Pakistan but unidirectional causality from Bangladesh to both India and Pakistan. It further documents that this volatility is persistent in all the economies and that it spillovers from both India and Pakistan to Bangladesh. The evidence attributes the economic development in the Indian subcontinent to the economic or policy innovations in attracting FDI. The findings of this study thus contribute to the literature by documenting the contrasting evidence that the volatility along with the trend of FDI contributes to the economic development and by reconciling the contrasting evidence.