Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai
Mumbai, Sep 11: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday urged the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to strengthen the country's digital rupee platform and accelerate the development of both wholesale and retail central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
Addressing the Global Fintech Fest (GFF) here, Sitharaman said the central bank should “sharpen capability with digital rupee”.
Reflecting on the theme of the event, the Finance Minister described Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a “double-edged sword”, noting that it can help both “detect and perpetrate fraud”.
The seventh edition of the Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2026 was held in Mumbai from September 8 to 11. Its theme was “Potential to Impact: Agentic AI, Tokenisation, Quantum – Trusted, Connected, Global Systems for Inclusive Finance.”
Sitharaman highlighted India's growth driven by its demographic dividend, citing the country's digital infrastructure and technological achievements.
“From building the world's most powerful digital public infrastructure with UPI processing billions of transactions, to standing tall as the fastest-growing major economy and breaking frontiers in space exploration, India is experiencing its demographic dividend in real time,” she said.
The Finance Minister also called on financial regulators, competition authorities, data-protection authorities and cyber-security agencies to maintain a clear understanding of their respective responsibilities and establish reliable mechanisms for coordination.
She stressed that financial activities should not escape appropriate regulatory oversight simply because they operate at the intersection of sectors or are delivered through technology platforms rather than conventional financial institutions.
“It is our responsibility to build the right guardrails so that greater speed also builds greater trust. Efficiency and safety should not be competing objectives; good institutional design must make them mutually reinforcing,” Sitharaman said.
“We all collectively need to ensure that innovation expands efficiency without bringing new forms of systemic fragility. AI may assist judgment, but responsibility must remain human and institutional,” she added.