<div>Given the current scenario, can the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government convince investors to come to India as the going is uncertain and choppy in most global economies? </div><div> </div><div>India did well in 1998 after the Southeast Asian crisis as it did in 2009 immediately after the Wall Street crisis led to a global recession. At present, the economy's fundamentals appear stable with declining current account and fiscal deficits. Domestic inflation is contained with the Reserve Bank of India keeping a hawk eye on price movements and liquidity flows.</div><div> </div><div>For years, growth in India has been fuelled more by domestic demand-not, as in China, by manufacturing goods for sale abroad. Now India's resilient consumer spending is an advantage as demand decelerates almost everywhere else. It is luring companies to produce in India and, the government hopes, can help spark a belated industrial revolution in the country of 1.2 billion, says the <em>Wall Street Journal</em> in a report on how India could benefit from the Chinese slowdown.</div><div> </div><div>"India hasn't been rattled as badly as Brazil, Russia or South Africa. Its international reserves are ample, and it isn't highly dependent on foreign capital to fund imports," the newspaper said.</div><div><br>"The Prime Minister was particularly of the opinion, since the economic fundamentals were sound, we need to take measures in order to further strengthen the economy," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said. "This would ensure that the global crisis could be converted into an opportunity."</div><div> </div><div>India is not as vulnerable to external shocks as many other Asian countries, as exports are a relatively lower share of total GDP than many east Asian countries such as South Korea, Thailand or Malaysia. While exports to China accounted for only 5.2 per cent of India's total last year, the figures for Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia were more than twice as high.</div><div> </div><div>India's situation, however, is much better than emerging market peer Brazil, where the central bank has been jacking up interest rates to fight off high inflation even as the economy slips into a deepening recession.</div><div> </div><div>Also, the plummeting price of oil has key benefits for India, which depends on imports for more than 75 per cent of its consumption. Foreign exchange reserves increased 13 per cent during the past year, inflation more than halved since January of 2014 and the current account deficit narrowed by 93 per cent in about 24 months, according to a report in <em>Bloomberg</em>.</div><div> </div><div>On Wednesday, Moody's Investors Service gave a vote of confidence to the Indian economy, placing it higher relative to other countries it rates.</div><div> </div><div>The ratings agency said the Indian economy's scale, currently pegged at $2 trillion, insulates it to some degree against global or domestic trends that could otherwise hurt growth. It backed the government's reform agenda. Authorities are making efforts to address some of the institutional constraints faced by the country, it said, while also cautioning that such efforts may not immediately improve growth or governance.</div><div> </div><div>Experts say a slowdown in the Chinese economy is a big advantage for Narendra Modi who is trying to attract manufacturers with his Make in India programme.</div><div> </div><div>A substantial part of Narendra Modi's avowed strategy to kick-start the economy was by way of big-bang reforms. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill was seen as low-hanging fruit among free-market reforms as it has rare bipartisan support. But it fell victim to an impasse over allegations of impropriety against Modi's cabinet and party colleagues.</div><div> </div><div>The government has already backed down from making changes in the land law of 2013, considered a big hurdle for new projects.</div><div> </div><div>Economists are of the view that in present context China has very little room for further stimulus through public investment while India can absorb trillions of dollars in just infrastructure.</div>
