Times of Better Bharat

What the RBI did

The Reserve Bank of India will conduct a 29-day Variable Rate Reverse Repo (VRRR) auction under the Liquidity Adjustment Facility on Thursday, 8 October 2026, with a notified amount of ₹2,00,000 crore, a window from 9:30 AM to 10:00 AM and a reversal date of Friday, 6 November 2026. The RBI said the decision followed "a review of the current and evolving liquidity conditions", and that the operational guidelines would be the same as those already published.

The same day, an RBI notification on penal interest for shortfalls in cash reserve ratio and statutory liquidity ratio requirements recorded that the Bank Rate had been revised upwards, "as announced in the Monetary Policy Statement, 2026-27 dated October 07, 2026". The notification does not state the size of the revision.

The RBI also released the results of four forward-looking surveys: the Urban Consumer Confidence Survey for September 2026, the Inflation Expectations Survey of Households for September 2026, the Rural Consumer Confidence Survey for September 2026, and the 102nd round of the Survey of Professional Forecasters on Macroeconomic Indicators. The release carries no findings. Reserve money data for the fortnight ended 30 September 2026 were published the same day, again without headline figures in the release.

The backdrop in the data

Consumer price inflation ran at 2.4 per cent per year in 2025 on the World Bank/MoSPI series. GDP growth was 7.6 per cent per year on the World Bank's 2025 estimate, with GDP at US$3.96 trillion in current dollars. Foreign-exchange reserves covered 7.88 months of imports (World Bank, 2025).

Who decides

Monetary policy is set by the RBI's Monetary Policy Committee, and liquidity operations are run by the RBI's market operations desk. Whether a 29-day absorption of ₹2,00,000 crore is calibrated to the inflation print will rest on the survey results the RBI has now posted, and on the monthly inflation data published by MoSPI — the two inputs that would allow the auction to be read as a judgement rather than a routine operation.

The directions, and how they were made

The Reserve Bank of India has issued amendment directions on the Standardised Approach for Counterparty Credit Risk (SA-CCR) and a Credit Valuation Adjustment (CVA) framework. Draft SA-CCR directions were issued on 10 June 2026, with feedback invited until 1 July 2026. Draft CVA directions followed on 7 August 2026, with comments due by 28 August 2026. The RBI said the draft CVA revisions proposed modifications to the capital charge for CVA risk for commercial banks, and that one of the key revisions was allowing eligible banks to choose a simpler approach.

The final package amends prudential norms on capital adequacy for four licence categories: commercial banks (Twelfth Amendment Directions, 2026), small finance banks (Sixth Amendment), payments banks (Third Amendment) and All India Financial Institutions (Fifth Amendment). Two further directions, the Commercial Banks – Miscellaneous Amendment Directions, 2026 and the Commercial Banks – Forthcoming Instructions Amendment Directions, 2026, were issued alongside them.

Why the perimeter matters

The directions reach beyond universal banks. Payments banks and small finance banks hold licences designed to serve customer segments the wider system has only recently reached. The World Bank's Global Findex puts account ownership at 89 per cent of adults aged 15 and above in 2024. The investment rate was 34.6 per cent of GDP in 2025 on World Bank data, against GDP growth of 7.6 per cent per year in the same year. Capital treatment that differs by licence category therefore bears on how far each category can lend.

What is not in the releases

The RBI's press releases state that stakeholder feedback was taken. They do not carry a quantified estimate of the capital effect on each bank class, or a phase-in schedule. That figure would appear in published capital ratios, which the RBI collects and would release. Banks operating under the four affected categories are the entities that will have to restate counterparty exposure and CVA risk under the new instructions, and the difference between the simpler and more detailed approaches is the choice the release says eligible banks may now make.

What the RBI said

Paytm Payments Bank Limited has been excluded from the Second Schedule to the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, vide notification DoR.LIC.No.S3674/16.13.215/2026-27 dated 31 July 2026 and published in the Gazette of India (Part III – Section 4) dated 7 September 2026. The RBI's press release, signed by Chief General Manager Brij Raj, runs to a single paragraph. It does not state the reasons for the exclusion and does not describe what changes for customers. The RBI maintains the Second Schedule; it is the body that would set out the effects.

The market this sits in

India's real-time payments market is the largest the ACI Worldwide/GlobalData series tracks: first of 51 markets by volume in the 2024 edition of the report, at 129 billion real-time transactions in the 2023 data year. ACI states that those transactions were 49 per cent of the global real-time total, and that 84 per cent of India's electronic transactions were real-time.

The account base beneath that is wide. Account ownership stood at 89 per cent of adults aged 15 and above in 2024, on the World Bank's Global Findex. Internet use was 70 per cent of the population in 2025 (World Bank/ITU), and mobile subscriptions 79.4 per 100 people in 2024 (ITU, via the World Bank).

The structural constraint

The same data shows where reach thins. Fixed broadband connections stood at 3.2 per 100 people in 2024 (World Bank/ITU), so a large share of digital payment activity runs over mobile networks rather than fixed lines. That makes licensing and schedule decisions at a single institution a question about the plumbing of the payment system, not only about one balance sheet.

What would change the picture is disclosure: the grounds for the exclusion, the treatment of existing depositors and the bank's continuing access to payment channels. On the document released so far, none of the three is stated, and the RBI is the authority that holds all three.

The meeting

The prime minister led a dialogue with board members of the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), alongside the Communications Minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia, and the Minister of State, Dr Chandra Shekhar Pemmasani, according to a PIB release. The release records the meeting. It does not set out commitments, targets or follow-up items.

Where the numbers stand

Mobile subscriptions stood at 79.4 per 100 people in 2024 (ITU, via the World Bank) and 70 per cent of the population used the internet in 2025 (World Bank/ITU). Fixed broadband, at 3.2 connections per 100 people in 2024, remains the thin part of the network.

On price, India ranked seventh of 237 markets for mobile data at US$0.16 per 1GB, from plans gathered between 5 July and 6 September 2023 and published on 26 September 2023 by Cable.co.uk. On speed, Ookla's rolling three-month figure for June–August 2026 puts India 32nd of 102 at 128.2 Mbps — a fall of seven places against August 2025. The measure covers devices with modern chipsets only.

On readiness, the Portulans Institute's Network Readiness Index 2025 places India 45th of 127, up four places; the report was launched on 4 February 2026. The UN's E-Government Development Index 2024 puts India 97th of 193 with a score of 0.668, up eight places on 2022. The ITU's Global Cybersecurity Index 2024 gives India 98.49 out of 100, placing it in Tier 1, "role-modelling" — one of 46 such countries among 194 assessed; that edition publishes no ranks.

The asymmetry

Cheap data and slow fixed lines describe a market built for handsets rather than premises. Price is the clear strength; the speed figure is the one that moved the wrong way, and it is measured by a private firm, not a government body. The levers sit with the Department of Telecommunications and the operators, while the benchmark against which the result is read comes from Ookla, the ITU and Portulans — none of which answers to either.

The meeting

The Ministry of Women and Child Development will hold a departmental summit in New Delhi on 8–9 October 2026, according to a PIB release. The release announces the dates and venue; it does not list the indicators the department will review.

Where the numbers stand

The World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Index 2026 places India 131st of 145 countries, with a score of 0.645 on a scale where 1 is parity. On political representation, the Inter-Parliamentary Union's count, via Our World in Data, puts women at 13.8 per cent of Lok Sabha seats in 2025. V-Dem's women's political participation index, also via Our World in Data, stands at 0.71 on a 0–1 scale for 2025.

On work, 32.4 per cent of women aged 15 and above were in the labour force in 2025 (World Bank/ILO), against labour-force participation of 55.7 per cent for the population aged 15 and above. The UNDP's Gender Inequality Index, via Our World in Data, records 0.403 for 2023, where 0 is parity. The World Bank's Women, Business and the Law index, via Our World in Data, gives 74.38 out of 100 for 2023.

On health and safety: maternal mortality was 80 per 100,000 live births in 2023 (World Bank); 22.3 per cent of women aged 20–24 had been married by 18 (World Bank/UNICEF, 2021); the sex ratio at birth was 1.07 male births per female birth (World Bank/UN Population Division, 2024). The National Crime Records Bureau recorded 66.4 cases of crime against women per lakh women in 2022 — 4,45,256 cases — a figure marked contested.

Who can move which number

None of these indicators is produced by the ministry holding the summit. The gender gap index comes from the World Economic Forum, the seat count from the IPU, the labour figures from the World Bank and ILO, the inequality index from the UNDP and the crime figures from the NCRB, which sits under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Representation in the Lok Sabha is settled by general election outcomes. Labour-force participation responds to decisions taken well outside a departmental meeting — which is the case for saying the summit can sequence work but cannot, by itself, move the numbers it will discuss.

The auction

The RBI's Treasury Bill auction for 91-day, 182-day and 364-day paper carried notified amounts of ₹8,000 crore, ₹8,000 crore and ₹7,000 crore. It drew 113, 71 and 96 competitive bids worth ₹38,721.000 crore, ₹20,044.600 crore and ₹13,596.000 crore respectively. The cut-off yields were 5.5747 per cent, 6.0999 per cent and 6.2869 per cent, at accepted amounts of ₹7,600.000 crore, ₹7,600.000 crore and ₹6,650.000 crore.

The two debt numbers

The IMF's 2026 figure for general government gross debt is 83.4 per cent of GDP — centre and states combined, on the definition used for debt-sustainability analysis. That figure is contested, and it is down from a peak near 89 per cent in 2020. The Union Budget's central-government figure is about 55.6 per cent for FY2026-27. The two are not contradictory: they cover different entities. The World Bank/IMF figure still standing for central government debt is 46.5 per cent of GDP, dated 2018 — eight years old, and quoted far more often than its vintage warrants.

The revenue side

Tax revenue was 6.9 per cent of GDP in 2022 on World Bank data — the base from which debt is serviced. The external debt stock was US$716.5 billion in 2024 (World Bank). Foreign-exchange reserves covered 7.88 months of imports (World Bank, 2025), and the current account balance was -0.4 per cent of GDP in 2025 (World Bank/IMF).

Transparency

The Open Budget Index gives India 44 out of 100 (International Budget Partnership, 2025). The 2025 round covered 82 countries against 125 in 2023, and the IBP says the two rounds' averages are not comparable, so the score should be read against that narrower field rather than as a change over time. The debt figures are produced by the IMF and the World Bank; the central figure comes from the Union Budget. A reader wanting a single number for what the government owes will not get it from any one of the three, and the body that could reconcile them — the government, in its own budget documents — has not done so.