Finance Ministry to push S&P for ratings upgrade on Thursday

Finance Ministry officials will meet representatives from ratings agency Standard & Poor’s on Thursday and impress upon the latter the need for a ratings upgrade by pitching the Narendra Modi government’s commitment to fiscal targets and the reforms carried out so far. 

This comes even as Moody’s, which upgraded India’s long-term sovereign rating in November last year, said in a note on Wednesday that higher oil prices and rising interest rates were raising pressure on India's fiscal and current account deficits. 

In the meeting, to be held in North Block in New Delhi, senior finance ministry bureaucrats, possibly led by