Gold rush buzz gone as India hosts summit
India will be putting on a brave face as it hosts an international economic forum starting Sunday, with its domestic growth stumbling and the international economy in crisis.
A gold rush buzz was tangible at last year's India World Economic Forum in New Delhi, with the economy expanding by a scorching nine percent and government and corporate leaders brimming with confidence about the nation's prospects.
But this time, organisers say the mood at the annual event in the Indian capital, hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry in partnership with the World Economic Forum (WEF), is totally different.
"This meeting is taking place at a time of profound global uncertainty that will test the resiliency of India's financial system and economy," said WEF Asia head Sushant Palakurthai Rao.
"There's little doubt even high-growth economies like India will be affected by the turmoil," Rao told AFP.
A report issued ahead of the three-day round of seminars and corporate networking said the global slowdown was piling pressure on Asia's third-largest economy and called on the government to speed up investment to bolster growth.
"There's pressure on (corporate) bottom lines," Confederation of Indian Industry chief Chandrajit Banerjee said, urging the government to step up infrastructure spending and put "projects on the fast track."
Highlighting India's uncertain mood was a survey of sectors by leading weekly news magazine India Today, which told telling readers how safe their jobs were and said companies had already handed out pink slips to nearly a million workers.
"India catches the global chill," said the headline in the magazine, which appeared just ahead of the meeting.
Still, 700 delegates had flocked to New Delhi from all corners of the globe to check out opportunities -- about the same number as last year, although some of the corporate names attending were not as big, organisers said.
While growth is seen dropping to around seven percent in the fiscal year to March 2009 from an average 9.2 percent for the past three years "even this lower forecast places India among the world's fastest growing economies," said Rao.
India stands well-positioned to weather the economic storm, he added.
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