Government yet to decide if sovereign bond will be part of this year’s borrowing, says official

Some of the operational details regarding the sovereign overseas bond will include the quantum, tranche, tenure, currency and the markets to borrow from, all of which have still to be discussed within the government.

Interestingly, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman's July 5 Union Budget speech did not indicate a specific timeline for the overseas sovereign debt issuance.

Sitharaman in her Budget speech said: “India’s sovereign external debt to GDP

Officials also cautioned that the government needs to prepare and factor in the macro economic implications of a sovereign overseas issuance. An official observed: “We need to be ready for all fall outs, including distortions that a sovereign bond issuance may bring”.

CNBC-TV18 earlier reported that the debut overseas debt raising plan of the Narendra Modi government has also been opposed by its right wing affiliates Swadeshi Jagran Manch and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

The sovereign bond proposal has also been sharply criticised by Rathin Roy, member of Prime Minister Economic Advisory Council, and former Reserve Bank of India governors C Rangarajan, YV Reddy, Raghuram Rajan and former director genereal of the RBI Rakesh Mohan, to name a few.

However, former RBI governor and head of the RBI panel on the economic capital framework, Bimal Jalan, has supported the government's move.