Some time back, I read an article in the Hindustan time about a person spending Rs. 45,000 flowers on 14 foot bouquet for Valentines Day and the article title “In times of meltdown, a Rs 45,000 bouquet” sounded like it was criminal to spend so much money in Economic Downturn.

First I would like to remind you that Love is blind. Love knows no boundaries, love doesn’t care about cost and if a person is truly in love he can spend all his fortune not just Rs. 45,000. As the saying goes love can make the world go around. We have forgotten to love, all we care is the cost. If everyone was in love in the world, there was no conflicts, wars and terrorism.

The second thing is the media is over using the word Economic
Downturn. India’s GDP will grow at 7% this year  instead of 9% last year. Does the word grow mean something? It says grow !! Not Downturn. So India is not affected by the downturn for the following reasons:

  1. India’s GDP dependency on exports is not as high as China. For example India’s exports are actually less than the imports.
  2. Indians haven’t lost as many jobs, most indians are still very much employed. Chinese lost 20 million jobs!
  3. You keep hearing the pilots have been asked to take a salary cut, I don’t think that’s a bad thing, its good for the airlines. The airlines have been facing heavy losses, if they can trim some costs (pilots earn 4.5 lakhs a month!), then they can be profitable and most importantly these people will continue to be employed. Its better to have a job with a salary cut then to have no job at all.
  4. Hey guess what the last time I went to Delhi and most of the star hotels were sold out!
    So what economic downturn?
  5. And most importantly we are a nation of savings, we save for the rainy day, unlike the west, which is a credit economy, so there is nothing to worry, trust me!

Economics depends on Consumption, and people will continue to use their phones, buy grocery, travel for work. Yes what has changed is that people planning on bigger expenses like buying a car are delaying the purchases. Not that they don’t have the money but because of the fear of the unknown. And thanks to the media hype that has been created and they saying “Economic Downturn”, people are not spending on big expenses.

If the media screams, “Economic Downturn doesn’t affect India”, you would be surprised that people will start feeling normal as if nothing has changed. Which is what is happening currently, as the stock market is going up, people are feeling happy. So the downturn is more of a perception than a reality.