India growth story looks better this year: Uday Kotak

The Indian story is looking better this year but it is nowhere close to the exuberance seen at the World Economic Forum (WEF) meet a few years ago, prominent banker Uday Kotak said on Saturday.

"This year's Davos is without any major earth-shattering crisis on hand, unlike the recent years when we had global financial crisis, euro zone crisis etc.," financial services conglomerate Kotak group's chief told PTI.

"My experience over the years at Davos has been that when it has been a white Davos without any dark clouds then we need to be more alert, as there may be something lurking."

In the context of the calm right now, with some turbulence in currency markets over the last 24 hours, Mr Kotak said US growth is likely to be slower than expected.

Euro zone is also continuing to be slow, but not in a crisis, and on the global scene there are challenges on China-Japan relationship and on Iran and Saudi Arabia, he added.

"So, I would like to believe that 2014 would be pretty sober," said Mr Kotak, who has been a regular at Davos summit for many years now.

Further, he said that India is looking better at Davos as compared to the last year, but it is nowhere near the exuberance that was seen in 2007-2008.

"Therefore, I am of the view that in terms of outlook for 2013-14, I see the growth at around or sub five per cent and in 2014-15 at 5-5.5 per cent," Mr Kotak said.

Indian growth will pick up gradually, which is not a bad thing in the medium to long term as it would give time to the Indian economy and businesses to shape up and get their act together, he added.

"As I think about Davos on the last day, I go back with a certain sense of it being without any major crisis, but it being a silent-water Davos story," Mr Kotak said.

The WEF annual meeting began here on January 21 and ends tonight.