Nirmala Sitharaman Speaks On Retail Investors, Rate Hike And Blockchain: 10 Points

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said that the recent decision of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to hike key policy interest rates is a part of the synchronised event by the central banks globally.

“It (rate hike) came as a surprise because it came between the two monetary policy reviews,” she said.

While attending an event the same day, the Finance Minister flagged anonymity as an “inherent risk” in blockchain technology and called for taking precaution in future with a rise in the use of this technology.

“The anonymity is what … one unknown element in this whole thing. The anonymity of the person or whoever or the robot is the one which we have to be absolutely readying ourselves as … a future challenge,” Ms Sitharaman said according to a PTI report.

The Finance Minister made it clear that using the distributed ledger technology (DLT), which is also called as blockchain, is “absolutely imperative” and the Government also supports the use of the same.

Terming anonymity as a “powerful imponderable” in the whole equation, Ms Sitharaman said, “unless we are able to guard ourselves against that anonymous element which can itself pose an inherent risk, we probably will be exposing ourselves much more than ever we would have imagined.” 

On the recent volatility seen in the Indian stock markets, the Finance Minister said that retail investors have played a key role in the markets in the last two years, especially acting as shock absorbers in difficult times.

“Indian retail investors have played a key role especially during the last two years; they have shown the world what they can do by standing up and becoming shock absorbers, unlike foreign portfolio investors (FPIs),” Ms Sitharaman said while addressing the silver jubilee celebration of the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL). 

“From an average of 4 lakh new demat accounts opened every month in 2019-20, it tripled to 12 lakh per month in 2020-21 and has further increased to around 26 lakh per month in 2021-22,” Ms Sitharaman said during the event.

Her comments came as foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have emerged as net sellers in recent weeks. In the first week of May, foreign portfolio investors pulled out Rs 6,417 crore from the Indian stock markets.