India's Credit Rating Is Being Downgraded

India, the world's second most populace nation, is battling its weakest economy since 2003 and it is importing more much more than it is exporting, creating a trade gap that needs to be financed. As a result, its currency, the Rupee hit a new low against the U.S. dollar and major credit rating agencies are downgrading India's credit rating.

On Monday, one of the world's preeminent credit rating agencies, Fitch dropped its ratings outlook for India from "stable" to "negative," which in effect drops its credit rating in the eyes of investors. This follows a similar action by Standard & Poor's in April.

What this means is that India, with all of its struggles will now have to pay higher interest rates to borrow money to fund its debts, and those higher costs and perhaps tighter credit will reverberate throughout India's economy. But it also tells us the threat of a global economic collapse is spreading, this being just one more example.

On a personal note, in looking at Gandhi's picture on the Rupees, it touches my heart to think of all that man accomplished, not just in India and South Africa, but how he influenced peace movements throughout the world, including the U.S. Civil Rights movement under Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Gandhi's work leaves India with a special legacy, one anyone would be proud to live up to.

Dick