Bond vigilantes worry too much: Veteran banker shrugs off fiscal concerns

Ashok Gautam is betting that India will achieve its fiscal-deficit target this year. That makes him something of a rare breed among investors in the nation’s bond market.

Gautam, a banker for nearly thirty-five years, is counting on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration’s past fiscal-track record, which shows it can generate funds to plug revenue gaps. That, he said, would remove a major impediment to a debt rally, which could see the benchmark 10-year yield slip to near a three-year low as the Reserve Bank of India cuts rates further.

“The government has the room to generate resources,” Gautam, executive director and