Monday, March 9, 2009

India Inc optimist, expects growth despite slowdown

India Inc representatives seem to be optimistic about the prospects of the economy and corporate growth even in the troubled times. ICICI Bank managing director and CEO KV Kamath mentioned India Inc is expected to deliver better results in the current quarter with compared to its average performance in the third quarter of the current financial year.

Kamath reiterated India’s GDP is expected to grow over 7% in the coming days.

Kotak Mahindra Bank managing director and vice-chairman Uday Kotak and Reliance Industries chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani also participated in a panel discussion at the Emerging Economic Giant: Business Law Conference in Mumbai on Friday. Ambani too indicated India will certainly clog double digit growth at least over next three to four decades. “However, we might take another couple of years to recover from the global downturn effect,” he added.

Ambani explained that India has a sizeable amount of young population and therefore growing younger in a scenario where rest of the world’s population is getting older. The consumption of goods & services by the younger generation is expected to rise phenomenally in future. “It’s a fact that India is going to get richer before it gets older whereas China is expected to grow older before it becomes richer. Thus among developing economies, India enjoys a competitive advantage in many aspects. Also, we have a vibrant democracy which has embraced technology in an excellent way,” he said.

India must work towards establishing a peaceful atmosphere in the neighboring countries. Kotak said India is expected to come out of the current economic crisis earlier compared to other developed as well as developing economies of the world. “India has sound and sustainable domestic banking and financial system, the country has huge market for domestic consumption and we are a significant producer of goods & services to suffice the domestic needs,” he said.

These three criteria are more than adequate to ensure that whenever there is an upturn in the global economy, we will be the first to enjoy its benefits. “However, I do not know how long the current crises will last. It’s beyond my assessment,” he said.

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