NEW DELHI: Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das on Thursday said economic revival is expected to continue unabated as vaccination and experience of dealing with the coronavirus will reduce the impact of the recent surge in cases.
“This time around, compared to last year March or April, we have additional insurance. First is the vaccine that is being rolled out….The second aspect is that people are more used to the Covid protocol….Third, at this point in time, one does not foresee a lockdown like the one we saw last year,” he said at the
Times Network India Economic Conclave, while sticking to the 10.5% growth projection for the next financial year.
Coronavirus: Live updatesDas said Indian payment networks — Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS) — have the potential to go global. UPI could be “a cheaper and faster alternative to available means for multilateral cross-border payments…. our RTGS also has multicurrency capabilities and with 24x7 operations now, there is a scope to explore whether its footprint could be expanded beyond India.”
About the ongoing reforms, Das said RBI is finalising guidelines on NBFC dividend distribution and scale-based regulation, and added that regulation should foster innovation “without compromising the need for financial sector stability, cybersecurity, customer protection, etc.”
He said digital players would play an important role this decade as service providers directly to customers or through banks as their agents or associates.
Das sought to comfort bond markets, especially when yields are rising and the central bank has made some strong comments in recent weeks. “There is no fight between central bank and bond market….What we are emphasizing is there should be orderly evolution of the yield curve and not sudden spikes or knee-jerk reactions to certain incoming numbers.”