Welcoming the upgrade of India’s credit rating and the outlook thereon by Moody’s as a “belated recognition and endorsement” of all the positive steps taken by the government to strengthen the economy, finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Friday that he intended to move “further on the fiscal discipline track” and “follow the (structural reforms) path we have embarked upon”. The government would “continue to maintain the fiscal glide path”, he said. The minister had said in Singapore on Thursday that while there would be “no fiscal consolidation, the challenges arising from structural reforms could change the glide path”. Listing out a number of steps taken — including GST, Aadhaar, bank recapitalisation, insolvency code, etc — which “together constituted major reform” and are directionally clear, Jaitley said these must dispel doubts in any quarters about India’s commitment to structural and other reforms. Stating that India has been one of the fastest growing major economies for three years in a row, Jaitley said Moody’s decision to upgrade India’s sovereign rating to Baa2 from Baa3 with a stable (as against “positive” earlier) outlook should not be seen as an event in isolation. He recalled the World Bank taking India up 42 positions in its ease of doing business ranking over three years, which is “not a mean achievement” for the country. The Centre is targeting a fiscal deficit of 3.2% of GDP in 2017-18, lower than 3.5% in the last fiscal. The road map is towards 3% deficit each in 2018-19 and 2019-20.