Economic expert and BJP's economic advisor until recently, PN Vijay, has said that Nirmala Sitharaman woke up to economic crisis too late. And when she did, she remained in denial till August, he said.

Speaking as part of the panel on economic slowdown in India Today Conclave East 2019, PN Vijay, who has been BJP's spokesperson in the past said: "Everyone knows that there is a lack of demand in the economy and whatever Nirmala has done is on the supply side. She woke up too late and then was in denial mode till August and then in the budget she kept talking about, apart from quoting verses, $5 trillion economy, which seems to be the biggest joke."

But after September, the government has done something, he said.

The veteran financial advisor said that the people have lost confidence in the Indian economy, which is driving the consumption down. "RBI cutting the Repo rate right now is like putting brandy into a deadman's mouth."

PN Vijay said that the government data shows that over 22 per cent Indians were jobless and those who have jobs fear they might lose theirs soon. In such an atmosphere there is no point to give lucrative loan offers as people do not wish to borrow. "We need to bring the confidence in the economy, the feel-good factor, the gung-ho, the animal spirit, which was India's biggest strength," PN Vijay said.

The economic roundtable, titled - The Big Slowdown: Can India recover? - saw the participation of a cross-section of economists, industrialists and political workers - all of whom agreed that India was facing a serious problem of consumption.

Most of the panelists also agreed that the government was misplaced in focusing on structural reforms while the industry, as well as consumers, were facing a dearth of liquidity.

Ashwani Mahajan, National Co-convenor of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, said that the cause of the current slowdown are the banking and non-bank financial institutions. "They reduced the amounts of loan. Basel-III norms were applied without any solid reason. I think RBI was mistaken in implementing such stringent measures in the loan process when we face such economic conditions," he said. However, he added that we see that banks and NBFCs are working to resolve the NPAs, "it does seem like the worst in the economy is behind us. World Bank and IMF support this vision."

Some of the economists and industrialists, however, did not necessarily agree.

DK Joshi, Chief Economist at CRISIL, said that we might be close to the bottom of the economic slowdown. "Technically we may be close to the bottom, but there is hardly any recovery. The main problem is financial stress and weak manufacturing. I think you are cleaning the financial sector by trying to improve the credit culture which will only prolong the slowdown."

Chairman of the Ambuja Neotia Group Harshavardhan Neotia said we have bottomed out, and there is no way but to go up. "But it will not happen very quickly for various reasons including the lack of confidence in the minds of promoters to invest in creating new capacities," he added.

Utsav Parekh, Chairman of SMIFS Capital Markets, said that it was crucial that we accept that we are in a recession.

"A solution can be found only after we accept that there is a problem. The need of the hour is not structural reforms, but money in my pocket to go and buy. Demand needs to be generated, only demand can create employment," Utsav Parekh said.

Utsav Parekh suggested that the government should not shy away from extending the fiscal deficit. "If to put money into people's pockets, we go into deficit then it should not matter. We have been at worse deficit ratios in the past. Only sure shot way to revive industry or business is to give money to consumers to go and buy things. Nothing else will revive it."

"You have killed the informal economy, which was about 50 per cent of the business, where will the demand come from?" he asked.

Rudra Chatterjee, Managing Director, Luxmi Tea & Obeetee, said that Indian consumers were facing a double whammy as the asset prices were in inflation despite the slowdown. "Usually, when there is a slowdown there is also a deflation in prices and at some point when prices go down by 10 or 20 per cent it becomes easier to invest. In current conditions, there is no reason to invest."

"We cannot just say that we are at the bottom of the slowdown and things will only go up. I hope we are there [at the bottom], but we will have to act so that we can take the growth back to eight per cent and end the slowdown."