Opinion

Reading Sanjay Malhotra’s Silent Dialogue

India’s newest central banker reveals more than he says in his latest MPC press conference. Beneath his composure lies a technocrat negotiating with himself.

Kirti Tarang Pande

October 6, 2025 at 5:37 AM IST

Monetary Policy

Risk-Based Premiums Must Lead to Higher Bank Deposit Insurance Coverage

RBI’s move to risk-based deposit insurance aligns premiums with bank risk, rewarding good banks and enabling higher protection for depositors.

Mint Owl

October 3, 2025 at 6:18 AM IST

Monetary Policy

India’s Economic Balancing Act Faces Tariff and Oil Test

RBI and government reforms aim to cushion growth, but crude and tariff shocks could tip India’s economy off its precarious tightrope.

Alok Kumar Mishra

Iti Vyas

October 2, 2025 at 11:55 AM IST

Monetary Policy

RBI Fixes its June Communication Misfire

The October review showed that central banking is about shaping expectations, not exhausting firepower upfront.

Mint Owl

October 2, 2025 at 9:39 AM IST

RBI Tweets

WRAP

Partly Monetary Policy, Largely Credit Policy

RBI holds repo rate at 5.5% but turns back to credit policy playbook, spurring lending while leaving December wide open for rate cuts.

BasisPoint Groupthink

October 1, 2025 at 12:22 PM IST

Poonam Gupta's tweet

Monetary Policy

Banks Poised to Challenge NBFCs As RBI Unshackles Restrictions

RBI relaxes capital market lending, acquisition financing norms and higher share lending limits for banks after decades of restrictions

Krishnadevan V

October 1, 2025 at 10:10 AM IST

Monetary Policy

RBI Breaks Old Orthodoxy with Regulatory Measures

By dismantling outdated restrictions and aligning banks with global norms, the RBI signals a bold break from decades of financial orthodoxy.

Sachin Malhotra

October 1, 2025 at 9:11 AM IST

Monetary Policy

RBI Reopens the Door to Accommodation

By keeping the repo unchanged yet signalling policy space, RBI corrects June’s misstep and restores credibility to its accommodative posture.

Kalyan Ram

October 1, 2025 at 8:31 AM IST

Screengrab

Monetary Policy

RBI Reopens Rate Door, December Cut Alive

RBI held repo at 5.5%, stance neutral. Malhotra kept powder dry, with inflation benign and growth risks making December a live meeting.

BasisPoint Insight

October 1, 2025 at 5:16 AM IST

Screengrab from a RBI Press Conference

Monetary Policy

No Matter What MPC Does, RBI Communication has to do Some Heavy Lifting

RBI’s biggest challenge is not what it does on rates, but how it explains the why, why not and what next to markets and the wider economy.

Mint Owl

September 30, 2025 at 12:34 PM IST

RBI

Monetary Policy

RBI Should Stay on Hold in October to Preserve Stability

With inflation subdued and growth resilient but external shocks looming, the RBI’s wisest move in October is to pause and preserve stability.

N. Srinivasa Rao

September 30, 2025 at 4:01 AM IST

Anurag Vijay/CC

Open Mouths, Open Markets, and RBI’s Signalling Gap

The RBI’s June gamble of frontloaded easing and a sudden neutral stance has backfired, raising borrowing costs. Governor Malhotra now needs both words and deeds.

BasisPoint Groupthink

August 27, 2025 at 6:45 AM IST

RBI

Getting credit flow where it matters most

India’s lenders look flush and NBFCs are growing, yet without private capital stepping up, the credit engine risks running idle.

Sujit Kumar

August 22, 2025 at 7:06 AM IST

iStock.com

Free UPI is a Bill the State Must Own

India’s UPI success masks a funding gap. Unless the government or RBI pays up, banks and fintechs will keep bleeding to keep it “free”.

Mint Owl

August 21, 2025 at 1:39 PM IST

RBI’s October Call Hinges on Transmission, Tariffs and a Swing Voter

August MPC minutes show caution but not closure. With Ranjan wavering, the RBI keeps cuts alive while waiting on data, tariffs, and transmission.

BasisPoint Groupthink

August 20, 2025 at 2:42 PM IST

Poonam Gupta

From Jalanga to Gozaria — RBI’s Long Walk to the People

From persuading the unbanked to guarding against digital mules, RBI’s field visits show how inclusion goals adapt to changing times.

BasisPoint Insight

August 13, 2025 at 10:04 AM IST

RBI

When the RBI Governor’s Words Move More Than Just Markets

Two recent flare-ups show why Sanjay Malhotra must blend facts with empathy because, for an RBI governor, every word can be policy.

BasisPoint Groupthink

August 12, 2025 at 9:36 AM IST

Screengrab from RBI Press Conference

Monetary Policy

RBI Panel Recommends Retaining Weighted Average Call Rate as Policy Anchor

RBI’s internal group recommends retaining the weighted average call rate as the policy anchor, citing its strong correlation with money market rates and effective signal transmission.

BasisPoint Insight

August 6, 2025 at 7:15 AM IST

Storm in a Tea Cup, Signal in the Steam

RBI lets call rate rise to repo, not to shock but to signal. The WACR is still the anchor, and markets now have no excuse to think otherwise.

BasisPoint Groupthink

July 22, 2025 at 3:16 AM IST

RBI Tweets

India’s Recovery Plan Is Missing Its Fiscal Half

While the RBI has acted to support growth, the Finance Ministry’s virtual silence since the Budget leaves policy looking oddly one-handed.

Dhananjay Sinha

Kalyan Ram

July 20, 2025 at 6:52 AM IST

CRR Deserves More Respect Than Being Reduced to the “New Normal”

By normalising a lower CRR, the RBI risks trivialising a potent policy tool. Clarity, discipline and market signals could all be at stake.

BasisPoint Groupthink

July 17, 2025 at 2:15 PM IST

iStock.com

Call Rate May Stay as the RBI’s Monetary Policy Anchor

Despite shrinking volumes, RBI likely to stick with the call rate as its policy anchor. Governor Malhotra signals no shift to TREPS yet, keeping repo-linked transmission key.

BasisPoint Insight

July 16, 2025 at 9:48 AM IST

Screengrab from RBI Press Conference

Monetary Transmission Is Both Alive And Dead Like Schrödinger’s Cat

Liquidity is plentiful, rates are low, yet credit growth is muted. Monetary transmission in India remains a paradox that defies easy solutions.

Yield Scribe

July 7, 2025 at 5:13 AM IST

iStock.com

MPC Minutes Reveal Wobbly Logic Behind the Stance Shift

The June MPC minutes show a committee leaning hard into caution, but its reasoning for abandoning the accommodative stance reveals some puzzling dissonance.

BasisPoint Groupthink

June 21, 2025 at 4:23 AM IST

Poonam Gupta

RBI’s Abrupt Policy Shift Risks Undermining Its Own Credibility

Markets do not fear rate cuts or hikes. They fear a central bank that shifts stance and floods the system with liquidity before the economy is ready.

Kalyan Ram

June 6, 2025 at 3:09 PM IST

Screengrab from RBI Press Conference

Monetary Policy

RBI’s New Dharma: Bold Cuts, Balanced Stance

With its bold cuts in repo rate and CRR, and the shift in stance, the RBI has tried to play its role in pushing growth but has a contingency plan, should things go wrong.

Abheek Barua

June 6, 2025 at 9:49 AM IST

RBI

No Mic For Deputy Governor Gupta In RBI’s Monetary Opera

India’s newest monetary policymaker sat silent through a blockbuster policy. Poonam Gupta’s RBI debut came and went, with barely a word.

BasisPoint Groupthink

June 6, 2025 at 8:13 AM IST

Screengrab of RBI press conference

Monetary Policy

RBI Surprises With 50 bps Rate Cut, But Signals Long Pause Ahead

The Monetary Policy Committee’s decision to shift its stance to neutral from accommodative signals that the door to further cuts remains open but the threshold to cut again has risen.

BasisPoint Insight

June 6, 2025 at 4:46 AM IST

LAF@25: SDF – From A Corridor To A Comfort Zone

Part 2 of our LAF@25 series explores how the Standing Deposit Facility may be steering India’s liquidity corridor towards a de facto floor regime.

R. Gurumurthy

May 20, 2025 at 3:37 AM IST

RBI Need Not Rush To 5% As Liquidity Does The Heavy-Lifting

The RBI has uncoupled its stance from liquidity. That may make aggressive rate cuts less likely, even if monetary conditions stay easy.

BasisPoint Groupthink

May 19, 2025 at 5:56 AM IST

RBI Tweets

LAF, SDF, MSF - Gupta’s Learning Curve Begins With ABCs Of WACR Vs SORR

The new RBI deputy governor takes charge amid a fluid framework and the push to convert surplus liquidity into transmission. It is more than the alphabet soup of acronyms that confronts her.

BasisPoint Groupthink

May 3, 2025 at 4:25 AM IST

What Role Should SDF Play In RBI’s Next Liquidity Framework?

As the RBI rethinks its operating framework, the SDF’s function—transitional fix or structural floor—demands sharper institutional clarity.

Kalyan Ram

April 24, 2025 at 3:20 PM IST

Anurag Vijay/CC

Growth Trumps Inflation in RBI’s April Minutes

With global shocks mounting, MPC minutes reveal deep concern over India’s growth path. Rate cut, dovish stance and liquidity flood now fully explained.

BasisPoint Insight

April 23, 2025 at 1:14 PM IST

RBI Can Undertake Unprecedented Interest Rate Easing – If It Wants To

With the convenient definitions of real rate and potential growth, the RBI can justify deeper rate cuts than anyone currently expects.

Basis Pundit

April 21, 2025 at 8:51 AM IST

RBI's Supervision Needs Repair, Not Just More Rituals

Repeated lapses in oversight raise hard questions about whether India’s banking stability owes more to chance than to regulatory rigour.

Banker Emeritus

April 11, 2025 at 9:21 AM IST

RBI’s Quiet Fix For IndusInd Works, But Some Transparency Won’t Hurt Either

The RBI’s actions carry a preference for behind-the-scenes coordination, applying nudges or occasional pressure, rather than overt intervention.

Manoj Rane

April 11, 2025 at 7:28 AM IST

RBI

RBI’s Quiet Confidence Lets Markets Set The Rupee’s Course

As global currencies wobble under tariff pressures, the RBI is betting on India’s fundamentals to anchor the rupee—and avoiding panic interventions.

Richard Fargose

April 9, 2025 at 4:35 PM IST

Monetary Policy

RBI’s Optimism Hinges On Questionable Insular Assumptions

Despite warning of trade risks, the central bank proceeds as if India’s economy exists in a vacuum

Dhananjay Sinha

April 9, 2025 at 1:54 PM IST

India’s Soft Power Can’t Plug A Hard Trade Hole

Services exports and remittances have held up. That doesn't mean India is shielded from China’s export onslaught.

BasisPoint Groupthink

April 9, 2025 at 12:41 PM IST

iStock.com/MAGNIFIER

Monetary Policy

RBI Goes All In On Dovishness, Outdoes Most Dovish Of Pundits

The central bank has done everything the market hoped—and more. What matters now is how far ahead the market decides to run.

BasisPoint Groupthink

April 9, 2025 at 5:46 AM IST

RBI

Monetary Policy

RBI Must Resist Calls To Reopen The Fixed Rate Repo Window

Calls to revive the fixed repo window are gaining ground. The RBI must resist — or risk undoing a decade of hard-won liquidity discipline.

Basis Pundit

April 7, 2025 at 2:44 PM IST

RBI At 90: A Quiet Force Built On Trust, Selflessness, And service

As it marks 90 years, the RBI reaffirms its quiet power — a legacy of trust, selflessness, and unwavering commitment to public good.

Alpana Killawala

April 1, 2025 at 10:31 AM IST

Rangan Datta Wiki/ CC

The Bureau

Oil Surge Rekindles Inflation Worries; Investors Await Trump–Xi Diplomacy

India’s Processed Potato Exports Surge as Asia’s Snack Demand Booms

When Infrastructure Kills the Vibe, Ambition Turns Up the Volume

Green crackers, Sahara-SEBI, Digital Arrest, Asian Paints, and more

CoinDCX Raises Again — Is India’s Crypto Winter Finally Thawing?

India’s Exports to US Fall 20% in September as Trump Tariffs Bite: GTRI

MPC Keeps Powder Dry as Rate-Cut Debate Heats Up

Mission Pulses: Does It Pack The Protein Punch India Needs?

Jallikattu: Tamil Nadu’s Ancient Bull-Taming Tradition