New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday expressed disappointment that India has not received full recognition from global agencies for its efforts over the last two-and-a-half years in improving the ease of doing business.
Addressing Economic Editor's Conference here, he said the country has functioned under adverse global environment during this period.
"I must acknowledge and state that the kind of steps we have taken, we still have not got from international agencies the full recognition of the effort we have put in," he said.
The comment assumes significance as India continues to be ranked low, at 130th position, in terms of ease of doing business index released recently by the World Bank.
Besides, global rating agency S&P ruled out an upgrade for India in the next two years even as it affirmed the stable outlook on the country’s 'BBB-' long-term and 'A-3' short-term sovereign credit ratings.
Moody's too has expressed its inability to upgrade India's rating in the next two years because of muted private investment and rising NPAs.
Jaitley said that when the Modi government took charge in May 2014 the first challenge was to re-establish credibility of decision making process and the government has not shied away from taking necessary decisions.
"The second important factor is, despite decisiveness, we have endeavoured our best to take as many as decision as possible through a large consensus route. We have not delayed decision making indefinitely for want of consensus but we have created adequate space and environment for that consensus," he said.
Talking about opening up of various sectors to foreign players, Jaitley said several areas have been liberalised through legislative decisions and executive orders.
Besides, procedures have been simplified and the effort of the government has been to ease businesses environment in India.
