Indian business body asks government to step-up efforts to find political

India should step-up efforts to find diplomatic and political resolution rather than holding out threat of military strikes against Syria, Indias main business body, The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) said Thursday. "Besides, to the geo-political problems in the Middle East, efforts should be stepped up to find diplomatic and political resolution rather than holding out threat of military strikes against Syria and others," the chamber said. ASSCHAM said the Middle East was extremely crucial for the global oil supplies that any turmoil anywhere sends the crude oil markets going through the spiral with impacts felt all over like what is seen in gold. The increase and speculative activity on Brent Crude will exert further pressure on Indian economies, the chamber said visibly concerned that the war would bring more miseries for the Indian economy which is already in a bad shape. "All these issues must be discussed multilaterally and let India take a lead," it added. India is running through the worst economic phase in the last 15 years. On Wednesday, the Indian currency rupee hit the lowest at approximately 69 against the US dollar worrying the government establishment and business fraternity. "We have a situation where rupee slips sharply by over 10-12 per cent in a matter of days driving all our calculations awefully wrong," the chamber said. The global factors have become so over-arching that they are destabilising the economies of the developing nations which have over the years followed consistently reforms to integrate themselves with the world economy, ASSOCHAM said.