India’s digital financial ecosystem is entering a new phase as tokenisation, agentic AI and other technologies reshape how financial transactions are conducted. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has urged the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to further advance its wholesale and retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilots and strengthen its digital currency capabilities.
Speaking at the Global FinTech Fest 2026 in Mumbai, Sitharaman said tokenisation was becoming a defining development in financial architecture and highlighted CBDC’s role in enabling faster settlement.
“Every tokenisation architecture being tested across the world eventually returns to the foundational question. What is the money leg made of?” she said, adding that the RBI should further advance its wholesale and retail CBDC pilots.
Sitharaman referred to the recent corporate bond tokenisation pilot involving the RBI and SEBI, where the bond and digital money moved at the same instant and the transaction was completed on the day the payment was made. She said CBDC enabled the monetary settlement and highlighted the cooperation between the 2 regulators.
The RBI and SEBI have separately launched the Demat 2.0 pilot, using tokenised securities, CBDC and smart contracts to speed up corporate bond settlements.
Sitharaman also discussed the need for “soft touch regulation” to address emerging risks without limiting innovation.
“Is there a way in which we can do a soft touch regulation? Is there a way in which, without affecting the innovative pressure, is there a way in which we can do something?” she said.
She said regulators, competition authorities, data-protection authorities and cybersecurity agencies need clear responsibilities and reliable coordination.
“No activity should escape appropriate oversight, merely because it sits at a boundary between sectors or is driven through a technology platform rather than a conventional financial institution,” she said.
Sitharaman said tokenisation could reduce unnecessary intermediaries and make asset transfers almost instant. Agentic AI could move beyond recommendations to taking actions directly, while quantum computing could offer new levels of computing power and security.
“When decisions and transactions become instantaneous, software errors, fraud, and market shocks can spread at the same rapid pace,” she said, stressing the need for safeguards, human oversight and circuit breakers alongside technological innovation.
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