Business with India

China’s economic crisis: An opportunity for India?

- by India Writes Network

On August 24, India’s stock markets witnessed a Black Monday with the Sensex falling over 1,600 points. Panic did strike the markets and the depreciation of the rupee only added to the worries. India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Governor of Reserve Bank of India Raghuram Rajan came out to reassure the investors that it is only a temporary pain that India had to endure. Overall, the fundamentals were very strong and the market mayhem was more due to the ongoing economic crisis in China, they said.

In today’s global integrated markets any crisis in any part of the world is likely to impact markets world over. The impact of such a crisis on different markets varies from country to country, based on their exposure to the crisis-hit markets. China has been seeing its stock markets and real economy slump over the past few weeks. And when the world’s second largest economy took a hit and witnessed a steep fall in recent times, it was bound to create panic across the global markets.

China’s surprise move to devaluate its currency sent ripples across markets. The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 8.5 percent that led to sell off in stocks and commodities around the markets in the world. During the 2008 global financial crisis China was seen as a shock absorber and even India did well to weather the crisis at that point of time. Both the countries were cited as examples of resilience to global shocks worldwide.

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PM Modi flags off $1 trillion dream for UAE investors

- by India Writes Network

Drumming up the India growth story in the Gulf dynamo, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi exhorted investors in the United Arab Emirates to cash in on an “immediate investment opportunity of USD 1 trillion in India.”

During his visit to Masdar city, a zero-carbon city, near Abu Dhabi, UAE, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed an investor meet where he underlined huge opportunities spawned by India’s growing economy and called for dovetailing UAE’s power and India’s potential to make it an Asian century.

Citing reports by major global institutions such as World Bank, IMF, Moodys, Mr Modi said India is the world’s fastest growing economy and has a huge potential to develop. “On one hand India is growing fast and on the other hand, the world is looking at Asia. But is Asia complete without UAE? I can clearly see that the UAE should be at the centre of mainstream of things in Asia. UAE’s power and India’s potential can make it Asia’s century,” he told top business leaders from the UAE.

Alluding to lethargy and indecisiveness that was seen in policy-making during previous governments in New Delhi, the prime minister said his government has got some legacy problems and his immediate priority would be to kick-start the economic reforms process.

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Why PM Modi’s visit to UAE matters: Bridging the Gulf

- by India Writes Network

The 27th sojourn by Prime Minister Narendra Modi outside the country to United Arab Emirates August on 16-17 is significant and remarkable not only because he is the first prime minister to go to this country after Indira Gandhi’s visit 34 years ago. Nor also because he is visiting a country which contributes about 15% of the total inward remittances (USD 15.7 billion out of a total of USD 69 billion received by India from all over the world in 2014-15). Nor even for the fact that Indians constitute about 30% of the total population (2.6 million out of a total population that is a shade above 9 million, less than half the population of Delhi). The visit is exceptional because this will be the first visit by Prime Minister Modi to West Asia, to a Muslim country and to a Gulf Arab country. This is one region that Mr Modi has not visited so far, although he has straddled across hemispheres over the last 14 months of his tenure.

PM Modi’s choice of UAE to be the first country of his visit in the energy-rich but troubled region is as compelling and momentous as was his choice of Bhutan to be the country for his first bilateral visit after assuming power. PM Modi is giving the same importance to UAE as he gave to India’s neighbours like Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh by making this a single country tour and not combining it with other countries. This also sends out a clear message that UAE occupies the same importance and relevance in India’s foreign policy matrix as its immediate neighbours.

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