The economy is slowing, auto sales are sliding and markets are at their lowest level in five months. Many economists expect growth this year to be well below the 7-percent mark. India has slipped to the 7th spot in the World Bank's ranking of the largest economies.

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The July sales numbers of major auto companies highlight the stress in the sector and the economy at large. Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Honda, Mahindra and Mahindra saw a sharp drop in sales.

The slowdown is structural and not cyclical, that's the word from former RBI governor D Subbarao. Speaking to Latha Venkatesh of CNBC-TV18, Subbarao said India needs to worry not just about its banks, investments and consumption but also about trade wars, protectionism and other structural issues plaguing the global economy.

Sumant Sinha, chairman and managing director of Renew Power, Arvind Virmani, chairman of EGROW Foundation and Anil Swarup, former secretary of power and coal, discussed what is hurting the economy.

“To me, more than these numbers it is the feel good factor that seems to be missing in the industry. As I travel around the country and talk to industry people, they don’t know from where they are going to get their liquidity from. The banks are not prepared to extend any credit,” said Swarup.

“There are both structural and cyclical issues and there are also shocks to the system. The problem comes when we discuss among economists, one person puts emphasis on the cyclical, the other on structural,” said Virmani.

“There were a lot of business people, small and large, who were very optimistic in their outlook for the economy. The broad structural issue is that this optimism has been replaced by a certain degree of pessimism and this has something to do with their approach to taxation,” Virmani pointed out.

“To my mind, one of the biggest drags on our growth over the last few years has been the high cost of capital. Inflation rates have gone down, interest rates have not,” said Sinha.