FM Sitharaman Calls For Faster CBDC Development, Stronger Safeguards As AI, Tokenisation Advance

New Delhi, Sep 12 (KNN) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday urged the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to accelerate work on its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), saying the digital rupee will become increasingly important as tokenisation, agentic artificial intelligence and quantum computing reshape financial markets.

Addressing the Global Fintech Fest 2026 in Mumbai, Sitharaman asked the RBI to build on its wholesale and retail CBDC pilots and further strengthen its capabilities around the digital rupee.

She highlighted India's first tokenised corporate bond pilot, saying the simultaneous movement of the asset and money legs demonstrated the role of CBDC in enabling faster settlement. 

The pilot, conducted by REC under the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (SEBI) regulatory sandbox, saw the bond and digital rupee move at the same time, with the transaction closing on the day of payment.

Tokenisation Brings New Systemic Risks

Sitharaman said tokenisation could reduce intermediaries and make asset transfers almost instantaneous, but warned that greater transaction speed could also allow errors, fraud and market shocks to spread more rapidly.

She said financial institutions would need to balance the efficiency offered by emerging technologies with safeguards against systemic risks, particularly as agentic AI and quantum computing advance.

FM Flags AI-Driven Cybersecurity Risks

The Finance Minister warned that autonomous AI-powered cyber capabilities may be advancing faster than mechanisms designed to control them.

“AI acts as a double-edged sword. It helps spot fraudsters and fraud faster, but it also allows attackers to automate larger, more sophisticated cyber attacks,” she said.

She called for stronger institutional accountability and safeguards as AI adoption accelerates, noting that agentic systems could potentially influence people without their awareness or be used to target critical systems and public opinion.

Sitharaman also said higher-risk AI applications should face greater scrutiny before deployment and throughout their lifecycle, while responsibility for AI-driven decisions must ultimately remain with people and institutions.

Push for Global Technology Industry Platform

Sitharaman proposed a federated industry platform bringing together India's broader technology ecosystem to give the sector a collective international voice.

Such a platform could engage foreign governments and regulators, promote interoperable standards, share data and cybersecurity practices, help companies navigate licensing requirements and contribute to international rules for emerging technologies.

She said India's technology companies increasingly operate across jurisdictions, making differences in data, licensing, cybersecurity, taxation, consumer protection and financial regulations an important consideration for global expansion.

India's Fintech and Demographic Advantage

Sitharaman said India's demographic dividend was increasingly visible in the businesses, technologies and platforms being created by its young population.

She highlighted the country's fintech capabilities, digital public infrastructure and UPI ecosystem, saying young Indians were turning demographic strength into economic momentum. She linked this trend to India's ambition of becoming a developed nation by 2047.

(KNN Bureau)