RBI to include G-Secs in global indices soon

New Delhi: Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das has said the central bank has already initiated discussions with some institutions and efforts are on for inclusion of government bonds in global indices as quickly as possible.

The development would attract higher foreign flows as many overseas funds are mandated to track global indices. It will help bring in large passive investments from overseas, as a result more domestic capital would be available for industry as crowding out to that extent would be reduced.

"That is work in progress. We have had our discussions with some institutions which maintain these global index. It is not possible to spell out a timeline, but it is a work in progress. Our effort will be to see that it is taken forward as quickly as possible.

I don't want to give a timeline," he said. This was a long-pending suggestion of foreign investors that was addressed in the Budget this year.

"Certain specified categories of Government securities would be opened fully for non-resident investors, apart from being available to domestic investors as well," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said in the Budget 2020-21.

The specified securities, which will be listed on the indices, will not have a lock-in requirement. Globally, there are some large institutional investors that track these indices, such as Bloomberg Barclays Emerging Market Bond index, for positional decisions on sovereign papers.

With regard to health of the shadow banking sector, Governor Das said RBI has been monitoring the top 50 NBFCs very closely, in fact much more closely than anybody can imagine from outside.

"Similarly, the health of the other financial sector entities including the banks are also being very closely monitored by the Reserve Bank of India. The Reserve Bank remains committed to maintain financial sector stability," he said.

As far as the NBFCs are concerned, he said, "our close monitoring over the last one year, we have a reasonably good idea about where exactly the stress lies."