Gujarat Chamber of Commerce & Industry (GCCI) organized a Talk by Shri Deepak Parekh, Chairman HDFC Ltd. on June 29, 2013 on the topic “Imperative Economic Reforms for Sustainable Growth of India” at J.B. Auditorium, Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA).

In his welcome address, Shri Prakash Bhagwati highlighted the various approaches of economic reforms adopted by India in pre crisis period and post crisis period. He mentioned two categories of reforms – the first one being accelerating and sustaining growth while making it more inclusive, and the second one being the high revenues that is generated through growth.

Shri Deepak Parekh highlighted in his address that tough times are mostly over and we would achieve higher growth rates in coming times owing to strong fundamentals. Mr. Parekh said that India was virtually wiped out of BRIC nations and Indonesia was looked upon as a substitute. “India has GDP growth of 5% which is higher than other nations of BRIC. It has recovered from the slowdown but the recovery is slow,” said Mr. Parekh. “India is not new to global turmoil but most of our problems have been brought upon by us. They are internal. However, the worst is behind,” said the veteran banker.

Talking about the depreciating rupee, Mr. Parekh said that it is one of the major concerns for the government and that substantial rupee appreciation in short term is unlikely. He cited that over dependency on foreign investment is largely responsible for volatility of our stock markets. He also said that people at large must come forward to invest in banks’ fixed deposits rather than gold and real estate, to help revival of our economy.

The lecture concluded with Vote of Thanks by Shri Jayendra Tanna, Hon. Sec. GCCI.