Indian leaders take on global recession and its India effect

Indian leaders take on global recession and its India effect

It has always been like 'when U.S. sneezes, the world catches cold; however, the rule was rewritten when India stood tall as the world was reeling under recession back in 2008. India could survive the global economic downturn with minor damages. The crippled world economy moved 2 years from then, dragging and crawling with severe financial crunch and it stands in the mid 2011 today gazing at an uncertain future that is clouded with fear of another global meltdown.

Experts opined that India is still in the expansionary phase and has not yet reached that saturation point to head towards downturn. Mainly a domestic-ridden economy, India had minor fluctuations in the markets and it was the Indian MNCs who suffered the scattered effects of the economic downturn. However this time, the market looks prepared to meet any adverse effects from the financial slowdown in the debt-ridden Europe and American economies and our leaders are hopeful of our financial stability - Check out what they have to say:

Our economic pundits and the heads of different government financial agencies are confident about the stability of our economy and they rubbish any grave fallout of the current economic crisis on India. Best known as the trouble shooter among his party members, Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee does not see it as a serious trouble and said, "There are difficulties and some sort of a crisis. But there is no need to press the panic button. I do not want to worry unnecessarily." Reaffirming his confidence on the stability of Indian economy, he said, "India's fundamentals are strong and the country is in a better position than other nations to meet the challenge."

Kaushik Basu, Chief Economic Advisor in the Finance Ministry said, "In the next months and in the medium-to-long run, there will be global capital in search of safe haven, we can become the safe haven that a lot of global capital will be seeking."

Prime Minister's economic advisory panel said that there is no need for any stimulus package to help the industry tide over the impact of the crisis following downgrade of the U.S. credit rating by Standard and Poor's. "I don't think industry needs any fiscal stimulus," said PMEAC Chairman C Rangarajan.

However, Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat opined, "a slow pace of recovery in the U.S. could also prompt hard hit sectors in India to call for another stimulus package by the government to boost investments and demand."

We also reached out to some of the industry leaders to get their expert views on the global downturn. Neeraj Paliwal, Vice President and India Country Manager, NXP Semiconductors said, "The Indian economy is demand driven and not export driven. It will be able to sustain the global recession. All economies go through a cycle of change and this is one of them. I think there is nothing too much to panic about." Paliwal's observations were corroborated by many industry leaders who shared the confidence and hope that the investor sentiments will remain positive for India.

Senior Vice President - Worldwide Service Provider Line of Business, Cisco India & SAARC, Sameer Padhye opined, "This is nothing but a natural cycle. When compared to other economies; India and China are the best sustainers in any given recession. The eastern economy is soaring high and this recession could be just a small correction. We survived in 2008. We can do it again. We are more demand driven, if you see the high inflation.. it shows that."

Rajesh Ramachandran, GM and Head, eBay India said, "I think when recession hits India, leaders need to take the opportunity and try out some new innovations, take risks and try out few options."

"India and China are the strongest economies to survive the global recession. It is unlike the U.S who has huge demand there by its people. But in India, the trend for demand is picking up very slowly with more of the middleclass opening up their avenues. Although we survive, we need to have companies, leaders and the government participation to prevent this recession. Moreover, the government has to provide some sort social security so that an individual is pretty confident to face the recession also," says Ravi Gururaj, Vice President- Product Engineering, Citrix Systems.