I seem to recall it was more in the 40% range for specifically the Asian tiger countries like Thailand and Malaysia after the crash they suffered in the 90s. Same underlying cause though, no ability to redeem or create shares, although I believe they were trading at a discount to NAV. In some ways they were actually in a better position because you could buy enough shares to end up taking over the fund, which is what activist investors eventually did leading to the end of that universe and the beginning of the modern ETF. This is an ETN though, which is another animal entirely. A very interesting discussion topic though. One wonders what would stop the ETN issuer from selling short a bunch of shares and then opening it back up to share creation? That would be a good thing if you were also along for the ride. Doesn't look like the borrow rate is too bad, somewhere around 5% although I'm guessing the forward curve on INR costs you an additional 5% or so based on the interest rate differential between the USD and INR (the currency).
The carry is not an issue because the direction of the trade is in our favor anyway. EM fx tends to sell off after yield curve flattens.
Yeah, with the level of overpricing it's a second order effect in any event if you're betting the discount will return to near zero in a reasonable amount of time.