India will remain strong after global slowdown: Ashok Wadhwa

Bangalore, Oct 23 (UNI) Ambit Holdings CEO and Managing Director Ashok Wadhwa today said though global economy is facing severe crisis, India will remain strong after recession ends.

Delivering his keynote address at a one-day conference on'Mergers and Acquisitions,' organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) here, he said, ''We are passing through a tough environment due to economic slowdown worldover.

''But it may be only a temporary phenomenon and once the recovery starts, India will emerge as strong player in the world.'' Mr Wadhwa said some of the Indian companies, who were strong players in the domestic market, wanted to go global and started acquiring companies abroad.

This went so fast that it led to collapse of the economy. This was the main reason for the present crisis.

In 2000, only one billion dollars was spent on Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) by Indian companies, but the figure rose to 33 billion dollars till 2007.

''Now, the situation is neither we get funds for merger nor for acquisition, nor there is leverage available.

''At this juncture, the companies who want to go for M &A should be honest and open minded,'' he added.

He said private equity players will become important in economy building after slowdown reached its low point.

Despite present global economic slowdown, there is no threat to IT industries and it is going to flourish.

''IT is like petrol, you cannot expect to continue without IT,'' Mr Wadhwa said.

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