Economic slowdown an opportunity for business leaders to grow stronger: Montek Singh Ahluwalia

He was delivering the special address at the CIIs National Conference and Annual Session 09 in New Delhi on March 27, 2009.

Differentiating the current crisis from the previous ones, Dr. Ahluwalia said, The crisis is being transmitted to India from foreign channels and the positive side is that Indian rural economy has not been as adversely affected as the urban one. The slowdown presents an opportunity for Indian Business leaders to introspect and optimize the present opportunity to emerge stronger for the more competitive times to come.

Giving the outlook on the economy, he said, The ongoing crisis, which is probably the worst crisis in last 60 years, will push the Indian economy off its higher growth trajectory that it has seen in last 5 years. Although some painful adjustment is inevitable in the current difficult time, the government is trying its best to minimize the pain.

Dr Ahluwalia, while giving an overview of the next financial year, said, The fiscal year 2009-10 will be significantly worse than the previous fiscal year. The recovery is expected to begin sometime around second quarter of 2009-10. The uncertainty is expected to reduce and results will start showing up of the various measures taken by the government in few months to come. This in turn can lead to the pulling out of the crisis in a couple of months.