'We are equipped to deal with economic crisis'

Former director of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Bakul Dholakia said that Indian corporates are capable of weathering the financial storm.

Giving an example he said that a person flying for the first time may experience some jitters, but Indian corporates are frequent fliers and they will be able to handle the financial turbulence.

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Dholakia was speaking at a book release function at Ahmedabad Management Association. Delivering a lecture on 'Recent trends in the financial markets and economy - lesson and precautions', he advised Indian corporates not to panic. AMA was also the venue for the release of the book titled 'financefundas.com' by Amal Datt Dhru. Dhru is a chartered accountant and an alumni of IIM-A.

Sunil Parekh, management expert and advisor to various industries and business bodies were also present at the event with other prominent dignitaries. Prof. Dholakia recalled the economic crisis of 1991 and 1997 that India faced and compared those scenarios with the current global economy crisis. He said, "Today Indian economy is more integrated with the world economy compared to 1991.

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However, the 1991 crisis was very serious and it took the country three years to come out of it." "But the current inflow and outflow in current accounts was 9% of the GDP in 1991 and in 2008 it is 53%. Capital account was 12% of GDP in 1991 and it is 64% percent today." He said the figures showed that the Indian economy has opened nearly 4-5 times than it was in 1991 so the global crisis is likely to affect us 4-5 times more than it was in 1991. "But despite global meltdown Indian economy has grown and it has shown resilience to every domestic and international crisis, till now," he said.

He further said that in 1991 the country's growth rate was 4% and there were fears that it would further fall to 2%.