S&P's analysis not objective: Ashwani Kumar

Says IMF report puts India's growth at 7 percent this year

PTI | June 13, 2012



Blasting Standard and Poor's (S&P) for threatening to downgrade India's credit rating to below-investment grade, Minister of State for Planning Ashwani Kumar has said the global rating agency is not objective in its analysis and not fair to the country.

Given India's strong economic fundamentals, it "raises serious doubts on the objectivity" of S&P ratings, said Kumar, who is visiting the US as part of the Indian delegation for the US-India Strategic Dialogue.

"I personally think that an S&P rating is not being fair to India," Kumar said.

"I am appalled by the findings of Standard and Poor's and am certainly disappointed that S&P has chosen to club India with some of the countries with which there can be no reasonable comparisons," he said.

India is a USD 1 trillion economy, widely expected by independent experts to have the potential to become the third largest economy surpassing Japan by 2030, he said.

Ashwani said India has grown in the last several years at around 8 per cent and even in difficult circumstances, as per the IMF report it is likely to grow at 7 per cent this year.

On Monday, S&P cited economic slowdown and political roadblocks to policy-making to warn that India could be the first BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) nation to lose investment-grade rating.

Kumar cited macro-economic fundamentals -- high domestic savings rates, high investment rates, demographic dividends and a burgeoning middle class with high purchasing power -- as positives that India has, saying that investors would not find S&P assessment reasonable.

"...with various flagship programmes of the government, empowering poorest of the poor, economically and educationally and with our commitment to skill up 500 million people by 2020 there is no way that investors would find the S&P projected ratings as reasonable," he added.

Kumar said the government has already stated that S&P has not disclosed fully the basis of its assessment.

Comments

 

Other News

Nepal Floods: India keeps close watch on the situation

India`s central government has been keeping a close watch on the situation arising out of the flash flood in Nepal on Wednesday. Union home minister Amit Shah spoke with the chief ministers of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the two states that share the border with Nepal, regarding the disaster

UPI completes 10 years of digital payments revolution

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI), launched on August 25, 2016 by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) under the regulatory oversight of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has completed 10 years of transforming digital payments in India. UPI has emerged as the backbone of India’s digi

Here’s an I.D.E.A. for career growth and success

Success in today’s professional organisation is no longer solely determined by academic qualifications, technical expertise or years of experience. While these attributes do matter, organisations increasingly value individuals who demonstrate the right mindset and behavioural qualities. The ability

PM interacts with CEOs, founders of space startups

Prime minister Narendra Modi interacted with CEOs and Founders of 20 Space Startups at Seva Teerth on Friday.   CEOs of leading companies in the space sector working in diverse fields ranging from building rockets and reusable semi-cryogenic launch vehicles, avionics, satelli

From one cow to a dairy business

In 2012, Anita Dash wasn`t dreaming of building a dairy brand. She wasn`t studying business models or planning market expansion. Like countless mothers across India, her focus was on something much simpler: giving her children a better future.   At the time, her most valuable

Ethanol blending: The two sides of a story

India`s crude oil consumption is estimated to be around 88.5% imported from abroad. This one single figure is also responsible for why ethanol has become both an economic strategy and fuel policy at the same time. In an economy like India, which depends so heavily on foreign oil, any increase in internat

Upcoming Conferences



-->

Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter