RBI 36th State Finance Secretaries Conference held in Mumbai
Why in the news
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) held the 36th Conference of State Finance Secretaries in Mumbai on 27 October 2026. Governor Sanjay Malhotra inaugurated it.
Key facts
- Theme: “Role of Quality of Expenditure, Effective Cash and Prudent Debt Management in Enhancing States’ Fiscal Sustainability”.
- Participants: finance secretaries of 27 States and 3 Union Territories, senior officials of the Union Finance Ministry, the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) and the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).
- Unified Lending Interface (ULI): the Governor asked States to onboard ULI. Adding state land records and agriculture data to it could widen formal credit for farmers and MSMEs.
- Programmable CBDC (P-CBDC): States were urged to route Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) through it. Conditions such as purpose, beneficiary or time window can be coded into the digital rupee, which helps cut leakages.
- Fiscal discipline: he stressed quality of spending, prudent borrowing and efficient cash and liquidity management.
- SLBC: States were advised to use the State Level Bankers’ Committee to settle regional issues.
- Booklet: “Compendium on Cash and Debt Management for State Governments” was released, covering concepts, processes and good practices.
About the conference agenda
The meeting reviewed market borrowings by States, short-term financial accommodation that the RBI extends to States, and adoption of a Benchmark Issuance Strategy for State borrowings. At the 5 August 2026 post-policy press conference, Deputy Governor Rohit Jain had said several States were interested in using CBDC and ULI for their schemes.
Exam angle
- The agenda covered State market borrowings, RBI short-term accommodation to States and a Benchmark Issuance Strategy.
- Remember the edition (36th), the venue (Mumbai) and the participant count (27 States and 3 UTs).
- P-CBDC and ULI are recent RBI digital initiatives and are likely to come up in banking awareness questions.