An interactive session on Current Economic Realities was held on 10th October, at Bengal Lounge, Chamber premises. The program was chaired and moderated by Mr. Sunil Mitra, former Revenue and Finance Secretary, Government of India and Chair Person of the Economic affairs committee. The panelists were Dr. Abhirup Sarkar, Professor of Economics, Indian Statistical Institute, and Chairman of WDIDFC, Mr. Ambarish Dasgupta, Founder and Senior Partner, Intueri Consulting LLP, Mr. Subir Chakraborty, Director - Automotive, Exide Industries Limited, Ms. Chand Tulal Mazumdar, Head - Public Policy, India and South Asia, UBER India Systems Pvt. Ltd. And Prof. Anup Sinha, Economist and Director, Heritage Business School.

Mr. Mitra began addressing the gathering by showing his concern over the current condition of the present-day state of Indian economy and the sinking of Rupee against the US Dollar. Mr. Mitra made it clear that the takeaways from the session would be a better understanding of where our economy is heading forward to. He discussed how the first quarter of the year started with promising numbers, where there was an encouraging rise in the GDP percentage, but as the quarter went by and we progressed towards the second half of the season, the growth prospects started dropping and the rest of the year started looking seemingly difficult. There are expectations of the real GDP growth to slow to 7-7.3 percent in the second half of this fiscal from 8.2 percent in June 2018 quarter. Mr Mitra said, "The current account deficit may cross 3 percent and the Rupee is weaker by 15 percent from the beginning of this year." and with this he went forward with summarizing the factors of Rupee and its devaluation, as well as of oil, framing the backdrop for the panellists to discuss upon.

Dr. Abhirup Sarkar followed the discussion building upon the detailed background set by Mr. Mitra, reminding the gathering about the huge outflow of FII for the Indian Stock Market, rising Global Crude prices and the increasing domestic prices of oil. He exchanged views on why import of oil is very important, he also notified that the oil bill in total imports has come down. Adding to the discussion he also conferred about stock market losses causing wealth erosion.

Mr. Ambarish Dasgupta, Former President of the Bengal Chamber, promptly took the stage to enlighten the conference, sharing his views metaphorically on why he thinks that our efforts should not be into injecting short-term steroids to take hold of the crisis in our economy. Instead, he was of the notion that a well-formulated plan must be developed which would take a safe hold of the economy in the long term. He opined that often plans for the long-term solutions take the backseat. "What is essential for the country right now is to have a proper intersection of the developmental economics with the monetary economics to have a balanced short-term, mid- term, long-term objectives being set for the country." he added. He also said that we must play a central role in Global Value Chain, not only in import and export.

Mr. Subir Chakraborty from Exide industries shared certain facts about the automotive sector. "The automotive trade globally accounts for more than 50 percent of the total trade that takes place all over the world. So, this is a very important sector. If this sector does well then the global economy also should be doing well." he said. Looking at the Indian scenario he said that there have been very robust growth rates from April to August. Passenger vehicles have grown by 9 percent and commercial vehicles have grown by 42 percent, three- wheelers by 44% and two-wheelers by 11.5 percent in the domestic scenario. Looking at this he said that it may falsely seem that the economy therefore is doing well. He recommended that to understand the domestic situation, one has to look at the global landscape. Today, we are in an interconnected state where happenings of one country affect some other. He pointed out that now, there is a shift towards anti-globalization. There is a definite paradigm shift.

Ms. Chand Tulal Mazumdar brought a different point of view to the interaction. She elaborated that the increasing fuel prices have affected the drivers at a macro level. She said that the recent policy changes from the government, especially from the Delhi government has had a negative impact on Uber and its drivers. She suggested that moving from fossils fuels to renewable sources of energy would be a great step forward which would also serve the country's interests. According to a research she pointed out that India can save 3.9 lakh crores by 2030 if we move to electric vehicles.

Prof. Anup Sinha then threw light upon the ambiguity in economics in his delivery. He seconded Mr Ambarish on the opinion that we should not get too agitated on the quarterly results and therefore look for measures which would bring a balance in the economy even in the long-term. He said that the GDP growth rates, the Rupee, current account deficit do worry him but he is more worried about employment, wealth creation, the environment, our plans for the next generation and newly acquired skill & knowledge set because that is what he believes matters in the long-term.

The conference closed with a question and answer session which was followed by networking over wine & cheese at the Bengal Lounge.