Blaming bad ideas on the recession

For a variety of reasons which would bore the pants of most of you, a jewellery exhibition in Delhi was probably a bad idea in the first place. However, as one of Tony Blair's PR flaks once told the world too publicly, a major disaster is a great opportunity to bury bad news.

So, no suprise then that Reed Exhibitions is blaming a downturn in India's jewellery business on its decision to pull the plug on its JCK India project. Rumours are rumbling around that Reed is quitting India completely. It's recent withdrawal from the RBI JV with Infomedia has fuelled the fire. However, we're inclined to believe the contentsutra piece that says that the exhibitions team is just pulling out of Delhi for now.

Perhaps they'd over-egged the infrastructure, but it seems odd timing. India is going to suffer in this downturn, but much less than most places. How badly is Reed hurting?