The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, Shaktikanta Das on Wednesday set priorities for India @ 100.
While speaking at the Global FinTech Festival in Mumbai, the governor highlighted India’s emergence as a fast-growing economic powerhouse, driven by its tech-savvy population and burgeoning fintech ecosystem.He outlined digital finance inclusion, deepening digital public infrastructure, focus on consumer protection, sustainable finance, and global expansion of UPI and CBDC.
“As we are closer to India@100, Banks, Non banks, Fintechs, regulators and government shall be fostering innovation but the context should be broader to society in terms of inclusion,” said Shaktikanta Das.
Financial sector is experiencing rapid digitalisation and innovation, we need financial inclusion, while confronting interconnectedness and Financial Institutions must adapt swiftly while leveraging technology and mitigating the connected risks.
Digital Finance Inclusion was one of the priorities for the governor. Quoting the progress in the Financial Inclusion Index, he said the government has climbed from 53.9 in 2021 to 64.2 in 2024.
“We succeeded in ensuring banking access within a 5 km radius. The Jan Dhan accounts stand at a total of 30 Mn which completed 10 years this year, they were supposed to be zero balance accounts, and the reality has belied , many accounts are in the name of women with good amount of savings, 66 per cent of those accounts come from semi urban and rural areas,” he said.
He further said that to further deepen DPI which encompasses Aadhar, UPI, targeted payment solutions like bill payments, there will be key tools to promote inter operation and cost effectiveness, said Das.
The Governor also recollected the recent announcement of ULI, earlier known as Public Tech Platform for Frictionless Credit (PTPFC), that has aimed for the lending institutions to enable credit. He mentioned that the full scale of launch of ULI shall take place soon.
‘New Trinity’ of JAM-UPI-ULI will mark a revolutionary step forward in India’s DPI journey, he said.
Das also pointed out the need for fintechs and banks to adopt customer-centric approaches, fair lending practices, and resilient IT infrastructure.
He underlined the expanding threat landscape in cybersecurity and the critical role of AI and cybersecurity measures in maintaining trust and long-term viability.
India’s commitment to sustainable finance is reflected in its regulatory framework and initiatives like Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGBs) and green deposit frameworks. Das noted challenges in scaling green bonds and a diverse set of larger investments.
He also emphasized the importance of international collaboration in cross-border payments and the potential for India to become a global hub.