Initial reports suggest that India has scraped through the economic meltdown. There are a few scars but the wounds are not deep.Housing sector has taken a few whiplashes, especially the luxury segment.The business of holiday resorts, just flowering , has been nipped in the bud.Medicare and pharma industry have had normal run. Health and wellbeing are everybody’s concern . Though the medicare tourism was expected to pick up in a big way , the setback to insurance companies has proved to be a dampener.
How did India manage this? One has to discount the reverse drain of foreign exchange and loss of outsourcing business recorded by business processing units. Garment exports too took a beating. Some highflyers in finance and airline business are putting on a brave front. there are chinks in their armour. The media, especially the print media, faces loss of ad revenue.Small and medium units are facing the resource crunch and the conservative bankers are only making their position worse.The government has also offered stimulus packages.It is debatable how far this will restore the health of the economy.
But India shines in one respect. The derivatives market had not advanced to the level its foreign counterparts had done.In the ultimate analysis,. the traditional approach of bankers, with honourable exceptions, saved the day.
There is talk of India emerging as a superpower.There are some plus points in India’s favour: it has a talent pool, abundant skill banks and genius of unusual kind. The locals uncomplainingly make do with resources available there, improvise and adapt these devices . Most times, they are low cost options.So one feels the time is not far away when there is reverse brain drain. As witness Prince Charles being impressed with the dabbawalas of Mumbai. Most of them are illiterate and yet deliver the tiffin or lunch boxes unerringly to the people in different offices in the business district. And punctually too!
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