Western businesses and diplomats in Delhi privately say Modi's reputation as a man of action has been hurt by setbacks on economic reform.

Addressing a business conference, Jaitley said it was important to stay on the path of reform and build momentum to achieve higher economic growth.

The proposed changes making it easier for government and businesses to buy farm land are now likely to be implemented by states, not by the central government

The size of bilateral trade is only $6 billion a year.

Modi's government sees itself in a sweet spot with spare cash.

Eminent free market economist Arvind Panagariya has been appointed to run Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new Policy Commission, set up to modernise economic strategy after decades of Soviet-style central planning.

Arvind Subramanian, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, was informally recommended to the post by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

India will find it difficult to support new global customs rules without "an assurance and visible outcomes" that a permanent solution is being negotiated over its concerns about public food stockholdings, the trade minister said on Friday.

George Osborne and British foreign secretary William Hague are on a two-day visit to India to bolster trade and investment ties with Asia's third-largest economy.

The rupee sank below 60 rupees to the dollar and government bonds had their biggest single-day fall in a month on Monday as higher-than-expected May inflation compounded worries about the impact of violence in Iraq on the price of oil, which India imports.