US slowdown & India IT - Loss or Opportunity?

US Financial slowdown is today's hot topic everywhere. It has made so much news that equity market of other countries are being driven by sentiments of news coming out of US market. If there is a sharp fall in Dow Jones then surely there would be a fall in Asian, Europe and Indian market too. And while US market is not able to recover from its bad situation, things are going bad in India too with a single thinking that most of money in India is coming because of industries in US. Especially in IT. Is that really true? Is Indian industry so dependent on US that it will loose its base if US goes in recession? Why do we think that we are so much leaning on US -

1. Customer for our IT industry are mainly from US. If business closes for them, then IT industry will loose money and jobs. It makes a good part of money coming to India.
2. Many of foreign investors were feeding money in Indian industry seeing it as a good growing market. With them being in problem, money would stop coming to India and there won't be funds to continue growth plans for these industries. Few might close down as they has not reached a sustenance level yet.
3. Many more....

Is US a big market for Indian goods? Are most of Indian company partner with US companies? I think we are still very much independent to keep things going on our own and we should not worry so much about it.

For IT industry which seems to be worst hit due to US situation, what are the impacts one would expect this will have -
1. Market for IT will reduce in US and in some cases may even shut down. In India people working on those projects might go on bench or get fired.
2. When laying off, outsiders (contractors in US) will be let go first. Being already low employment situation people will come back to India. Unemployment rate in India will grow.
3. Hikes would reduce or not happen at all. Spending from IT group will reduce including company and employees of these company.
So it will result in a situation where a large share of our population will not be able to put same money in Indian market which it was putting. In some cases, it might create a bad situation like bad credit where people have lost job and not able to meet their commitments. It will indirectly impact other areas of Indian industry like Banks, real estate and retail. These are all under one assumption that IT industry of India will not grow and actually shrink from its current status.

Now let us look at positive side of same situation. Do we really think that all US industry will close down and will not try to overcome the problems. Society has grown and it need these industries to go on. Can we do away with banks in today's time? Can we accept a situation when there won't be any television, mobile or Internet? I am sure answer would be a big NO.
Also if these need to go on, can today an Industry make a good profit without involving anything from IT and keeping everything manual? Again a NO.
Automation is an important key to make profit in any industry which is possible only by IT. And who will supply a cheap and cheaper IT solution?

It may happen that if IT will just wait and watch, things would actually turn to their profit and they would get more work than they have currently in future when US will overcome its financial slowdown? Yes, there is a risk that nobody knows when things will improve and will they really improve at all? While later question is having a very low probability, IT need to prepare itself for surviving in situations like this. One cannot go on like earning its daily bread on a daily basis. Surely those companies are in problem which are not having a future plan and no alternatives. Only the better will survive and that is the law of nature. Even in a totally unnatural concept like business these nature rules apply. Survival of fittest and elimination of weakest is mantra for improving and maturing a life.
So when this phase will be over, we would have learnt to do much better in same situation which we are capable of current time. We need to make ourself better to compete in diverse situations and provide more profitable solutions. Solutions which are directly addressing end user need and converting real business into profit. We need to keep patience for the time when demand will come again and we need to be in a position where we could present us as a valid candidate to meet that opportunity.

Started in share market

- Taken from blog 'Life Movie Fun'
For a long time I was thinking of entering in share market. Never got a chance to do so while I was in india.. reason - most of employer have blocked trading sites in their workplace so that to increase productivity. In other countries it is not so - may be becuase people are not so much into it? Naaaa.. I think may be because they believe in their employees more than indian companies do. Anyway this is a never ending debate...
My experience to share market is good till now.. When I opened my demat account, share market was booming like anything and I was dying to enter into it. Something inside me told me to hold and not enter into it that time.. good decision I would say as otherwise I would have fell flat on mouth.. :(. I invested in few mutual fund at decreasing slope of market and it still went down taking my money into it.. I am hopeful that mutual funds are supposed to be investment for long term so over the time it will bring me returns..
Share market though has started going up a bit and I managed to enter just before it was touching its long time bottom mark. Result, it has started showing returns. Though I didn't put much of money, it was a good experience. I felt like I learnt a lesson of patience here. I would say few points which I felt are really needed if someone don't want to get hurt in here -

1. Keep an eye and ear on market news. Take a bit of risk as economic cycle is never on a single trend. If it is going up, it will come down. You should be watchful to enter in it while it is down.

2. Take a decision when it is good enough down for your risk appetite. It may go down even further which might make you panic. If you try to exit at that time, you would be actually loosing only. Keep faith in company where you have invested. If it is good, it will come up.

3. Don't try to play lucky. Invest in good companies where you are confident of returns. when you have learnt a lot, may be try something adventurus.

I think this 3 point lesson is enough for starting. If you try to learn all before entering, you might be sitting like me never entering it. so make a start :).
Good bye