As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepares for pivotal national elections in May, international investors and economists are questioning the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) commitment to economic reform.

To many, the government's continued proliferation of protectionist policies and populist spending initiatives in India, including Finance Minister Piyush Goyal's interim budget unveiled on Feb 1, is undercutting the country's investment climate and dangerously diverging from the administration's original focus on market liberalisation.