India's rating should reflect its potential: Kaushik Shaparia, CEO of Deutsche Bank Group, India

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Given strong economic fundamentals, India's sovereign rating should be much higher than what it is, although more needs to be done to convert the burgeoning global interest in the country into actual investment, Kaushik Shaparia, CEO of Deutsche Bank Group, India, told Bhaskar Dutta and MC Govardhana Rangan in an interview. Edited excerpts:

Fund flows seem to be favouring India, valuations notwithstanding. What is happening in the economy or the financial markets to have drawn so much attention?
I am of the view that India should not rest on its laurels.

Our aspirations need to be higher vis-a-vis what fundamentals are. I am more bullish than most people but what I am not happy about is our progress in comparison to our growth and progress. In terms of hard facts, we are not getting the FDI that we should.

We have earned our stripes. The narrative is no longer about why India is interesting. The moot point is how to monetise this interest.

We need to convert it. The cycle needs to be shortened between interest and actual investment. Our rating is only at the cusp of investing rate and that does build a little bit of conservatism among investors.

I think India's rating should be at least two notches higher, if not more. It is just a question of when we will get there, not whether we'll get there.

So, what do you think could really make India monetise the opportunity?
We need to convince the world that we will be the fastest to get things off the ground. The world does trust us.

But there is a price of democracy which investors have to pay, and we need to convince them to do that. When we talk of government, we should break this down into central, state level and local. I think on the central level we score well.