The "India" connection to the S&P downgrade :)

No, it is not about me :)

The Wall Street Journal had this:

Have you met Deven Sharma, president of the credit rating firm Standard & Poor’s, which stripped the U.S. of its top-notch triple-A credit rating?

Deven Sharma? An Indian name?  Which is when my mind echoed Johnny Carson's "I did not know that!"

The WSJ adds:

The Man Who Downgraded America: Get to know Deven Sharma, president of the credit rating firm Standard & Poor’s, which stripped the U.S. of its top-notch triple-A credit rating on Friday. Sharma didn’t come to S&P with a background on ratings or credit markets, but he had worked on S&P’s strategy for several years since taking on the ratings company as a client in his previous role at consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. The promotion of Sharma, who was  born in India 55 years ago, was taken as an indication that S&P would continue to emphasize growing its business outside the U.S.

I was sure that my favorite newspaper in India will have something on this Indian connection; of course:

He holds a bachelor's degree from the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin and a doctoral degree in Business Management from Ohio State University.

He did his schooling in Jharkhand's Dhanbad district. 

A long way from Bihar and Jharkhand, which are some of the poorest states in India, if not the two poorest states!

The paper then reminds us of another Indian connection during at the onset of the financial crisis:

Mr. Sharma is part of an expanding league of Indian-origin persons heading global financial institutions.

Incidentally, another Indian-born executive Vikram Pandit was at the helm of the efforts to steer global banking giant Citigroup out of the financial crisis of 2008.

Hmmm ... I am not sure if I ought to celebrate such Indian connections :)

Here is Sharma explaining the decision to downgrade: