Deven Sharma - The Indian who degraded US & Obama!

New York, Aug 9: While rumours and speculations of a new recession started doing rounds amid the down trends in global economy, the man who buffed the United States by downgrading America's credit rating from AAA to AA+ is an Indian!

Deven Sharma is the American executive and the President of Standard & Poor's, the US-based financial-services company, which degraded America's credit rating from AAA to AA+ saying the deficit reduction plan passed by US Congress did not go far enough to stabilise its debt situation.

Following the Standard & Poor's degrading, US economy along with other world stock markets witnessed panic selling and nosedive in shares. Soon after, US President Barack Obama criticized the Standard & Poor's, that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks and bonds.

Obama dismissed first-ever downgrade of the country's AAA credit rating by Standard & Poor's and said the US has "always been and always will be a triple-A country".

"All of this is a legitimate source of concern. But here's the good news: Our problems are eminently solvable, and we know what we have to do to solve them. With respect to debt, our problem is not confidence in our credit. The markets continue to reaffirm our credit as among the world's safest. Our challenge is the need to tackle our deficits over the long term," said Obama on Monday, Aug 8 while speaking for the first time after degrading.

Meanwhile, during an interview with CNBC news channel, Deven Sharma backed the Standard & Poor's decision by saying that agency's decision was made mainly because of the rising debt levels and the process of resolving things.

"Our role is to call the risks objectively, with transparency, and that's what we try to do to fulfill our role and that's what our job is for the benefit of investors," Sharma said.

While the downtrend in world markets continue, Sharma said that S&P's decision was not the sole reason for the latest economic crisis, but it was determined by "multiple factors" that can't be explained.

"The market could be reacting to the fact there is a slowdown in economic growth. It could be reacting to what's happening in Europe. It could be what's happening in the US. There are multiple factors that...contribute to how the market reacts," Sharma added.

Sharma received his Bachelor's Degree from Birla Institute of Technology in Ranchi and Master's from University of Wisconsin. He completed his Doctoral degree in Business Management from Ohio State University.

Sharma worked with Booz Allen Hamilton for 14 years before joining McGraw-Hill in 2002. He served as Executive Vice President of Global Strategy of McGraw-Hill Companies Inc., from Jan 15, 2002 to October 2006 and as Executive Vice President of Investment Services and Global Sales of Standard & Poor's, from November 1, 2006. He was named president of Standard & Poor's in Aug 2007.

Deven Sharma has authored three publications - The Truth About Customer Solutions, Customer Solutions-Pilots to Profits, and Connecting the Demand Chain.

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