Good Article - What makes India tick, and will it last?

Source:
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/big-story/what-makes-india-tick-and-will-it-last-450

It was the collapse of a series of big commercial banks in the United States
that triggered the economic turbulence which has now enveloped the whole world.
The economies of Europe, Japan and South Korea tottered forcing the respective
governments to intervene in a big way to prevent a collapse. The crisis has
created an unprecedented loss of jobs everywhere, may be for the first time
since the Great Depression of 1929.

Developing countries such as India, China and Brazil could not entirely isolate
themselves from the destructive impact of the events taking place in the West.
But things did not go so bad for them either.

In September-October 2008, when the cascading effects of financial crisis in the
US began touching the Indian shores, economic experts predicted a doomsday
scenario. Corporate houses started adopting a defensive policy intended to
sustain and conserve their businesses.

However, when the final GDP growth figure (6.7 per cent) for the financial year
2008-09 was announced recently, it came as a pleasant surprise. India had
clearly shown its resilience in a negative global environment.

As the Indian economy started looking up, it also triggered positive sentiment
in the stock market with the Sensex crossing the 15,000-mark and Nifty hovering
around the 5,000 mark.

What is behind the pleasant growth numbers in a collapsing world? A closer look
reveals that an untapped large domestic consumer base, a conservative banking
system with robust regulatory mechanism and a lesser integration of the national
economy with that of the rest of world shielded India from the fate that befell
the US, Europe and Japan. Experts say, however, that the worst is not yet over
and the country needs to be cautious throughout this financial year (2009-10).
They are, however, pleased about the eventual growth numbers for 2008-09 which
no one expected.