Rural bank credit expansion urged to prioritise agricultural allied activities and digital onboarding, with emphasis on SHG enterprise support.
The Union Finance Minister directed RRBs to increase ground-level agricultural and allied-activity credit, expand credit to women SHGs with sponsor-bank and NABARD/SIDBI support, accelerate technology upgrades (Internet Banking, Mobile Banking, UPI) by end-December 2024, saturate beneficiaries under social security schemes, promote digital transactions and branch expansion in rural areas, and maintain asset quality, corporate governance and coordinated capacity-building to support enterprise development and rural financial inclusion.

India International Trade Fair draws record visitors; awards presented across states, sectors, foreign pavilions and cleanliness initiatives.
India International Trade Fair concluded with more than one million visitors and awards across state exhibits, thematic state presentations, foreign pavilions, ministries and public sector entities, empowering India initiatives, and private sector participants. The fair emphasised cleanliness under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, awarding Swachh Pavilion medals and commendations, and organisers acknowledged media coverage and law enforcement for an incident free event.

Board governance obligations: Boards must ensure technology, risk, customer protections and KYC compliance to sustain bank resilience.
Boards must exercise active governance to steer banks through rapid technology-driven transformation by fostering responsible innovation, critically scrutinising management, and aligning strategy with risk appetite. Oversight must focus on business model resilience and mitigation of concentration risks, underpinned by risk management and data integrity through robust real-time systems and tailored stress-testing. Boards should ensure transparency over third-party dependencies, enforce customer-centric KYC implementation and grievance mechanisms, and prioritise talent retention and capability upgradation to preserve operational continuity and regulatory compliance.

Digitalisation and productivity: digital public infrastructure and fintech reforms aim to boost productivity while balancing risks.
The address argues that digitalisation and AI can materially raise productivity if integrated into the real economy and measured using disaggregated growth accounting (KLEMS) to capture ICT capital, human capital and intangibles. It documents India's financial digitalisation-widespread bank digital services, UPI, Account Aggregators, OCEN, ONDC and TReDS-yielding efficiency gains, broader inclusion and MSME finance improvements. The Reserve Bank's approach balances innovation and risk through infrastructure, pilots (including CBDC), the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub and the Unified Lending Interface, guided by five priorities: inclusion, DPI, customer protection and cybersecurity, sustainable finance, and global cooperation.

Financial inclusion expansion urged to operationalise FI schemes and boost rural credit through targeted RRB reforms and digital adoption.
The Finance Minister directed Southern Region RRBs and their sponsor banks to expand credit under flagship schemes, scale up agriculture credit with focus on allied activities (dairy, animal husbandry, fisheries), mobilise CASA deposits for sustainable growth, accelerate financial inclusion by achieving FI scheme targets and operationalising inoperative accounts, and to design customised MSME credit products while collaborating with SIDBI on digital platforms, co-lending and refinance arrangements. Administrative measures included reviewing RRB recruitment rules and seeking State views on amalgamation on the principle of One State One RRB.

FIU cooperation enhances AML/CFT information sharing, IT system collaboration, and public-private partnership exchange.
Enhanced cooperation between India and Qatar FIUs concentrates on operational collaboration to combat money laundering and terrorist financing through comparative assessment of IT systems, strategic analysis tools, and methods for effective information exchange. India's FIU presented its public-private and private-private partnership initiatives and experience with virtual digital asset service providers. The FIUs reaffirmed cooperation under an existing memorandum on information exchange and pursued practical collaboration via on site visits, capacity building, and potential knowledge transfer on technical systems and partnership frameworks.