Going forward, if there is one major risk the world’s financial markets face today, it is a slowdown in the US economy. Already the R-word is being bandied about by scholars and commentators and discussions focus on soft- or hard-landing. The recession was expected to hit in the first quarter of 2007, but is now being seen to come in the third or fourth quarter. Surely this will impact India adversely, as it will the rest of the world. But only technically, as global money pipelines shrink. Fundamentally, because of strong domestic consumption and potentially huge investments in infrastructure, its impact may be lesser on India than, say, on China or Brazil. Either way, global financial integration remain keywords and global markets, key drivers.