Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has published its annual report for the financial year 2025-26. In a series of articles, we will go through the highlights of the report. This is the fifth and final article in the series. Chapter 7 – Public Debt Management The ways and means advances (WMA) limit for the Government of India (GoI) for H1:2025-26 (April to September 2025) was fixed at ₹1,50,000 crore and for H2:2025-26 (October 2025 to March 2026) was fixed at ₹50,000 crore. The RBI entered into an agreement with the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD), under Section 21A(1) of the RBI Act, 1934, to carry on the general banking business of GNCTD and manage its rupee public debt. The WMA limit of GNCTD was set at ₹890 crore, taking the aggregate WMA limit of all the states / UTs to ₹61,008 crore. The RBI introduced Separate Trading of Registered Interest and Principal of Securities (STRIPS) in the state government securities. Retail Direct Gilt (RDG) account – An au...
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has published its annual report for the financial year 2025-26. In a series of articles, we will go through the highlights of the report. This is the fourth article in the series. Chapter 6 – Regulation, Supervision and Financial Stability (Part II) Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) – User-level programmability was introduced in the retail segment of CBDC, enabling individual users to send programmable money to other individuals. Multiple government agencies commenced pilots in various direct benefit transfer (DBT) schemes leveraging the programmability feature of CBDC. In Gujarat, Puducherry and Chandigarh, public distribution system (PDS) beneficiaries were credited food subsidy through programmable CBDC, redeemable for eligible commodities at fair price shops / identified merchants. Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) has been enabled to discover existing CBDC wallets. On cross-border payments, the RBI signed a memorandum of unders...