The ongoing global financial turmoil will affect India's markets and economic growth outlook and so the country will have to speed up reforms and boost investment to sustain high growth rates, a report by the World Economic Forum and the Confederation of Indian Industry has said.
The four key risk areas India needs to focus on at the moment include economic security, energy security, agriculture and food security and national security, it adds.
The report says that many issues facing India in these four areas will require considerable long-term investment from both public and private sectors. 'Decision-makers in government and business will be forced to make trade-offs as to where spending and investments are allocated,' said the report, which was released ahead of the annual India Economic Summit beginning November 16 in New Delhi. Top government officials and industry leaders are expected to interact with heads of global firms at the summit.
Those scheduled to attend include Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek S Ahluwalia and Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal. Also participating are the chief ministers of Gujarat, Karnataka and Haryana.
Nearly 700 participants from over 35 countries are expected to attend. Keeping in view the current global situation, the summit will focus on four areas -- global shifts, managing risks, inclusive growth and future competitiveness. In addition, there will be sessions on global health initiative, water, disaster resource network and global growth companies.
While the 2007 summit saw the presence of top business honchos like Sunil Bharti Mittal of Bharti, Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries, Adi Godrej of Godrej Industries and Anand Mahindra of Mahindra & Mahindra, this time India Inc is represented by Nandan Nilekani of Infosys, Naveen Jindal of Jindal Steel and Power and Rahul Bajaj of Bajaj Auto. On the absence of more high-profile business leaders this time, the CII said new people had been invited from various sectors this time.
The fundamentals of the Indian economy were strong and the Indian economy and industry would be able to weather the current financial storm in a much better way than many others, said Chandrajit Banerjee, director-general, CII. He, however, added that the impact of the global turmoil would certainly moderate India's growth and so steps were needed to look at the financial architecture and the real sector to put the economy back on the growth track.
"This year's summit is very timely with respect to understanding the evolution of the global economic crisis and its future impact on India's economic and political landscape," said W Lee Howell, senior director, head of programming and senior adviser on Asia at the World Economic Forum.
"This will be the first time that key stakeholders of the Indian economy will meet following the G-20 Summit in Washington," added Howell.
