Flicker of hope? The worst is behind

The Indian rupee has depreciated heavily against US dollar and recently crossed even mark of 60, which has been a major cause of concern for the government of India. However, Deepak Parekh, chairman of HDFC, was of the opinion that India’s problems are mainly internal and the country should solve them instead of blaming global companies. He expressed his views while addressing the audience on ‘Imperative Economic Reforms for Sustainable Growth of India’ at a function organised by Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) in Ahmedabad on Saturday. He expressed optimism about India’s growth, stating that its fundamentals were strong.

Parekh said that India was virtually wiped out of BRIC nations and Indonesia was looked upon as a substitute. “India has GDP growth of 5% which is higher than other nations of BRIC. It has recovered from the slowdown but the recovery is slow,” said Parekh. “India is not new to global turmoil but most of our problems have been brought upon by us… They are internal…however, the worst is behind,” said the banker.

Parekh also said that the stock markets were volatile because they were over-dependent on Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs). The FIIs were withdrawing their money because they were not getting benefit of arbitrage which used to attract them to Indian market, he stated. “We should have our house in order. We cannot have an attitude that FIIs need India, and not the other way round,” he said.

The HDFC chairman opined that rupee depreciation was sentimental. He also praised Gujarat, calling it one of the most preferred states for doing business. \