India to register 7 per cent growth in FY'09: India Inc

MUMBAI: Top corporate leaders, including Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani and ICICI Bank CEO K V Kamath, on Friday said the country's economy would see a growth rate of 7 per cent in the current fiscal despite a slowdown in the third quarter.

"India will see a growth of nearly 7 per cent despite registering 5.3 per cent rate in the third quarter," Kamath said at a seminar here.

According to him, 79 of 80 council members of CII expect this quarter to be better than the last quarter, as 70 per cent of the businesses are back to normal and remaining 30 per cent on way to normalcy.

Enumerating India's competitive edge in global economy, Ambani said India has demographic advantage, technical skill and strong democracy that would drive economy to double-digit growth for the next four-five decades.

"In demographic terms, India is placed exactly where the USA was placed in 1910-20...this is our baby boomer generation," Ambani said.

On the emerging global economic trend, Kotak Group Vice Chairman Uday Kotak said the world was moving toward protectionism and reversal of capital flow was taking place in the emerging economies.

"Every country is putting barriers -- tangible and intangible -- to protect the downturn," Kotak said.