The Greece-Eurozone crisis is expected to have a lesser impact on the Indian economy than expected. Ranjit Shahani, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Novartis India, insists that a bigger crisis looms if the stock market in China comes crashing down.
Speaking to BusinessLine , he said, "The Greek tragedy that is playing out has a huge mindshare, but the market share is very low. Instead, one needs to keep an eye on the ball in China, rather than pay attention to the Greek drama that is going on."
Stating that the possibility of a bigger challenge lies if the China stock market comes crashing down, he added that it has not been factored in by India.
"If it (China stock market) does crash, our stock market will have a larger impact. The overheated situation in China is what one must look out for. The impact could be huge, right from the US to India," he said.
He pointed out that one needed to pay attention to China and not to Greece at the moment. "The economy of Greece is too small in the world economy to make an impact. This is not a Lehman Brothers moment, and it is definitely not a pack of Dominoes set to go down," he said.
As for India, the Vice Chairman said, "In India, our position is relatively more comfortable, both in terms of growth and in the economy. There are other positive financial indicators in India, take foreign exchange, for instance."
India has over $355 billion foreign exchange reserves.
The corporate chief added that the odd short term swing in the stock market was normal, and that it would not interfere with the basic fundamentals of the country. "Greece is a small blip and will be forgotten soon," he added.