Kochhar's mentor and ICICI Bank Chairman K V Kamath has also sounded an optimistic note. In his latest letter to ICICI Bank shareholders, Kamath said he is confident about a "robust and sustained (economic) growth over the medium to long term".
Stressing that the reality is a little better than the sentiments, Kochhar, CEO and Managing Director of ICICI Bank, has said that global situation was not the "big reason" for the current situation and "a lot of it is in our own hands."
"... But we all tend to talk more about challenges and take the positives for granted," Kochhar said in an interview published by global investment banking giant Morgan Stanley.
Incidentally, in another interview published by Morgan Stanley, top business leader and It giant Infosys' co-founder and former chief N R Narayana Murthy said that India's image has suffered over the past 3-4 months and the country was suffering from challenges that were "self-inflicted."
A growing list of corporate leaders have been expressing anguish over lack of policy initiatives by the government. They include IT major Wipro's Chairman Azim Premji, top banker Deepak Parekh and Aditya Birla group's Kumar Mangalam Birla.
Standard and Poor's has already warned that India risks losing its 'investment grade' rating due to "slowing GDP growth and political roadblocks to economic policy making".
HDFC's chairman Deepak Parekh has also said in his annual letter to shareholders that it is the "lack of political will" that was holding India back and investors can no longer be placated by talks of "long-term fundamentals".
Parekh had said that most of the recent problems "have been self induced - lack of fiscal rectitude, uncompromising coalition partners, inability to gain consensus on crucial legislation, stalled reforms, corruption scandals and a sense of apathy towards foreign investment." MORE
