India faces crippling slowdown

As world leaders prepare for the G-20 conference in Washington at the weekend, there are growing fears in India that the financial crisis could be about to derail their booming economy.

India has repeatedly said it would like to play an active role in resolving the global recession. However, the influence developing nations like India could have in unclear.

Many in India remain pessimistic that anything substantial can be achieved at the summit.

B Hariharan is the finance director of BILT, India's largest paper company. He says the biggest problem is confidence.

“Today, even if you have good news, nobody is willing to look at it or accept it.  But even if there is small bad news, it is swallowed, projected and reacted,” Hariharan said.

Other business leaders agree, saying pessimism only adds fuel to the fire, and may bring down other nations who are struggling to develop.

“In a period of three months we've seen the situation that the US has gone from euphoria to panic. And it is really important that in India we do not go through that phase,” Dilip Modi said, vice president of the Association of Commerce and Industry in India.

Some also believe that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) did little to help the situation and are hoping that it will do more to bring the crisis to an end.

Whatever the case, many ideas are likely to be hammered out as leaders look to reverse the global meltdown.

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