In vibrant democracies like India, with multiple veto centres, it is "unreasonable" to expect "big bang reforms", country's top economist has said.

In his maiden public appearance in Washington after being appointed as India's Chief Economic Advisor last year, Arvind Subramanian, also told a top American think-tank this week that India is "still very much a recovering economy, not a surging economy".

He said though it was unreasonable to expect big bang reforms announcement in annual budget, the new "government is moving ahead" slowly but steadily with a series of key policy and fiscal reforms that "would change" the face of India in the years to come. "This budget maintains and accelerates the reform momentum," he said.

"Big bang reforms in robust -- what I say frustratingly vibrant democracies such as India -- are the exception, rather than the rule. In countries like India power is so dispersed, there's so many veto centres -- the Centre, the states, different institutions."

"You know, the power to do, undo, block, is so extensive, that, you know, it's a bit unreasonable," Subramanian said in his address to the prestigious Peterson Institute for International Economics.