The government had been pitching hard for a rating upgrade by Fitch Ratings, citing strong economic fundamentals, political stability and a slew of reforms. It felt all these positives did not reflect in the rating.But, nearly two weeks ago, the global rating agency retained India 's sovereign rating at 'BBB-'. It blamed a weak fiscal position and difficult business environment for not upgrading the rating.India continues to be rated 'BBB-' (just a notch above the junk grade and lowest among investment grade ratings) by most of the global credit rating agencies despite the government pitching hard for an upgrade on the basis of several reforms initiated over the last few years.Below is how Thomas Rookmaaker, Director, Sovereign Ratings, Fitch Ratings, reads India’s situation:Rookmaaker says inflation levels are closer in line with the inflation levels which they saw when they upgraded India to investment grade in 2006. But soon, inflation reached double-digit numbers and stayed there for quite some time. But India's peers saw an increase in inflation but subsequently a drop in inflation in those years. Currently, the median for inflation for BBB category is still much lower than India's inflation rate.Rookmaaker admits there is fiscal consolidation at the central level. But, he says, if you include the states, the general government deficit is still very large compared with peers (the median in the BBB category) and the debt level is also very large, at 68% of GDP.Rookmaaker believes the business environment in India is relatively difficult. In the ease-of-doing-business indicator of the World bank, India ranks as one of the lowest if not the lowest of all the BBB category-rated countries. He acknowledges recent improvements but says they come from a lower base.Rookmaaker appreciates the FRBM panel report for its clear focus on bringing down this debt level. But he asks what the government was going to do with the report. Though the Budget speech mentioned bringing government debt down to 60% of GDP, there is no clear commitments from the government. It is not clear yet what the government is going to do.