US Rating Downgrade - Mr. Deven Sharma Alumni of Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi and President of Standard & Poor’s shakes the world

Mr. Deven Sharma Alumni of Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi and President of Standard & Poor’s, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies has now shaken up the world. On August 5, Mr. Deven Sharma, President of Standard & Poor’s which is the world’s foremost source of financial market intelligence, providing independent credit ratings ,indices, risk evaluation, investment research and data struck off the 'AAA' rating of the US, considered the Gold standard in the world of finance, for the first time since 1914. 
Mr. Deven Sharma born in 1956 got his Bachelor’s Degree from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, India and then Master’s Degree from University of Wisconsin and a Doctoral degree in Business Management from Ohio State University in 1987.

Mr. Deven Sharma has work with Dresser Industries and Anderson Strathclyde. After that he has worked 14 years for Booz Allen Hamilton.Mr. Sharma left the company as a partner then he joined McGraw-Hill in 2002 .He served Executive Vice-President of Global Strategy of McGraw-Hill Companies Inc till 2007. Mr. Deven Sharma was named President of Standard & Poor’s in August, 2007.

On August 5, 2011 Friday afternoon, Standard & Poor’s officials told Mr. Barak Obama's The President of USA treasury department that the ratings major's analysts have come to a decision that the US no longer deserves to be among the best rated countries in the world. After six hours and a flurry of emails, phone calls and conferences between top officials in the Mr. Barak Obama administration and Sharma's team of number-crunchers, the world got to know of the unprecedented move - something that was in the air for a few months but which appeared more like a distant possibility: The US' country rating was downgraded one notch to 'AA-plus'. And suddenly the 57-year old Mr. Deven Sharma was in the spotlight, hailed by a select few, but criticized by several in the financial world. 

Mr. Deven Sharma took over as the president of Standard &Poor’s  in August 2007, just when the sub-prime crisis in the US housing sector was getting out of hand, and credit rating agencies were picked as one of the perpetrators of the meltdown for their flawed ratings models of housing loans. Over the last four years as the head of one of the foremost rating agencies in the world, Sharma has faced several US Congressional grilling, but has negotiated most of those with much élan, people who have followed him closely say. In a recent interview, Sharma admitted that over the last four years, comments made by US lawmakers have changed to appreciation from strong criticism. 
No wonder the veteran of several testimonies in the US congress has been able to stand up to the global criticism from all quarters for their critical decision. Since Friday evening, Sharma, along with Mr. David Beers, his top lieutenant on the ratings side, have stood firm alongside Standard &Poor’s analysts and defended the controversial and unprecedented decision saying that such a step was necessary and it was done for the benefit of investors. 
People who followed Mr. Sharma's recent messages to the world said that there was enough evidence that a rating downgrade was more of a probability than not. Late last month, in a Congressional hearing during the height of uncertainty about raising US debt limit, Sharma was non-committal about what ratings decision his company would take. A Bloomberg report said that he told US lawmakers that S&P was waiting to see what the final proposal would be before deciding whether to keep US debt at the firm's highest ratings level. 
While the world criticized Standard &Poor’s for their historic decision, some even questioning the data the analysts used but back home there are some who think Sharma and his men have done a great job. 

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