India’s Bond Market Puzzle: The Missing Market Makers

India’s bond market lacks depth because trading remains thin. Unless natural players like the banks take a larger role in government and corporate debt, liquidity and benchmarks will remain weak.

Rahul Ghosh

March 6, 2026 at 7:47 AM IST

iStock.com

Why Central Banks Intervene and Why the FX Rate Matters for the RBI

Capital flows now dominate currency markets, forcing central banks to intervene. This essay explains why exchange rates matter for the RBI’s stability mandate.

Michael Debabrata Patra

March 5, 2026 at 6:28 AM IST

iStock.com

Supervising the System: RBI’s Quiet Governance Reset

As finance turns digital and interlinked, the RBI is redesigning supervision by shifting from balance-sheet checks to ecosystem-wide governance architecture.

Abhishek Dey

March 5, 2026 at 5:23 AM IST

Borrowing Without Bruising the Curve in 2026-27

Supply discipline, SDL restraint and liquidity calibration will determine whether ₹16 trillion sails smoothly or strains duration again.

Yield Scribe

March 2, 2026 at 3:27 AM IST

Finance Ministry

India’s Liquidity Surplus Masks a Structural Shortage?

India’s liquidity looks ample on paper, but thin reserve buffers and weak deposit elasticity reveal a deeper structural strain.

Kalyan Ram

February 18, 2026 at 12:32 PM IST

New CPI Base Year Improves Confidence for Bold Policy Initiatives

Revised weights, softer underlying inflation and corridor liquidity dynamics suggest room for calibrated action in April, subject to incoming data.

Barendra Kumar Bhoi

February 17, 2026 at 3:31 AM IST

iStock.com

India’s Next Growth Phase Needs Regulatory Courage

With banks strong and inflation anchored, India’s risk is not fragility but comfort. Governing success will demand pre-emptive discipline.

Anupam Sonal

February 16, 2026 at 7:14 AM IST

Will Total Return Swaps Rescue India’s Corporate Bond Market?

RBI’s TRS framework promises synthetic liquidity in corporate bonds, but without deeper cash markets, derivatives may amplify fragility, not depth.

R. Gurumurthy

February 16, 2026 at 3:25 AM IST

iStock.com

Bond Market Mood Turns as Inflation Reset Cools Yields

Lower January core CPI numbers in the new series, reduced gross borrowing, and softer global yields pause the selloff, though heavy supply keeps the bears around.

Yield Scribe

February 16, 2026 at 2:22 AM IST

Bond Market-Making Needs Capital, Not Just Mandates

India wants market makers to revive corporate bond trading. Even gilts never got meaningful liquidity from mandates. Without risk capital, market-making will remain rhetoric.

R. Gurumurthy

February 12, 2026 at 7:22 AM IST

PIB

RBI Seen Managing Frictional Liquidity via VRR, VRRR: I-Sec PD

BasisPoint Insight

February 9, 2026 at 6:44 AM IST

MPC Review

Monetary Policy, Liquidity, and the Road Hereafter

Despite ample liquidity and 125-bps easing, monetary transmission stayed uneven. Bonds reflected supply fears, policy uncertainty, and muted demand.

Shubhada Rao, Vivek Kumar, and Yuvika Singhal

February 7, 2026 at 1:51 PM IST

Time to Take a SIP of Deposits

As household savings shift to equities, Indian banks face a silent funding squeeze. Reimagining deposits through SIP-style CDs could restore stability.

Prakash Balakrishnan & Ganga Narayan Rath

February 6, 2026 at 3:22 PM IST

iStock.com

MPC Review

Liquidity Signals Keep Transmission in Focus

RBI held rates steady, but without fresh liquidity measures, bond yields hardened, funding spreads remained wide, and transmission risks took centre stage.

Shailendra Jhingan

February 6, 2026 at 12:25 PM IST

Poonam Gupta/LinkedIn

MPC Review

RBI Signals the End of Easing as Markets Begin to Question Comfort

Policy stability risks being mistaken for financial stability. The easing cycle may have ended, but the adjustment it triggered is far from complete.

Dhananjay Sinha

February 6, 2026 at 10:53 AM IST

MPC Review

RBI and the Bond Market Are Living in Parallel Worlds

Bond yields now reflect supply pressures, not policy signals. Until that changes, the RBI and bond markets will continue to operate in parallel worlds.

Kalyan Ram

February 6, 2026 at 10:37 AM IST

iStock.com

MPC Review

Why the RBI Chose Optionality Over Precision

With inflation benign and borrowing risks rising, the RBI opted for flexibility over flourish, signalling support without locking itself into specifics.

Kalyan Ram

February 6, 2026 at 6:29 AM IST

Opinion

Malhotra’s RBI Needs Moral Suasion to Repair Policy Transmission?

The RBI’s challenge may not lie in policy intent or available tools. The difficulty appears to be that decisions are not consistently producing the intended market response.

Mint Owl

February 5, 2026 at 1:58 PM IST

MPC Review

Solving RBI’s Liquidity Conundrum

RBI’s record liquidity infusion in 2025-26 has failed to ease conditions as dollar sales, cash leakage and fiscal hoarding drain surplus.

Gaura Sen Gupta

February 5, 2026 at 6:09 AM IST

iStock.com

MPC Review

Liquidity Is Plenty, Confidence Is Scarce

Despite deep easing and ample liquidity, markets signal stress. Transmission has stalled, making confidence, not rates, the binding constraint.

Madhavi Arora

February 5, 2026 at 5:29 AM IST

Juvaida Khatun/Istock

MPC Review

RBI’s Easiest Decision May Be to Do Nothing

RBI likely to hold rates steady as growth holds firm and risks shift offshore

K. Srinivasa Rao

February 5, 2026 at 3:13 AM IST

MPC Review

RBI’s Rate-Cut Problem Is Not the Cut — It Is the Plumbing

India’s rate cuts are failing to move bond yields because the liquidity plumbing is broken, forcing markets to follow overnight rates rather than RBI signals.

D. Tripati Rao and Ritesh Gupta

February 4, 2026 at 6:43 AM IST

US Tariff Reset May Cut India’s Effective Trade Burden to Low Teens - BofA

BasisPoint Insight

February 3, 2026 at 11:54 AM IST

Budget 2026

Budget Arithmetic Leaves Bonds on Edge

India’s 2026–27 fiscal arithmetic offered little comfort to bond investors, with higher borrowing, sticky interest costs and no clear backstop for supply pressures.

Yield Scribe

February 1, 2026 at 2:02 PM IST

RBI

Cautious Optimism for Credit in 2026-27, but Rate Relief Remains Elusive: India Ratings

BasisPoint Insight

January 21, 2026 at 11:32 AM IST

Briefing

Why the RBI Uses Buy-Sell FX Swaps and What They Really Mean

RBI’s buy-sell FX swaps are read as rupee signals. They are not. An explainer on why swaps manage liquidity and hedging, not the exchange rate.

V Thiagarajan

January 14, 2026 at 4:24 AM IST

India’s Bond Yields Are Rising for a Reason, and It Isn’t the Centre

India’s fiscal optics look tidy, but swelling state borrowings are distorting bond yields, overwhelming demand and blunting the RBI’s liquidity toolkit.

Yield Scribe

January 6, 2026 at 3:37 AM IST

iStock.com

How the Fed Became a Lender of Immediate Resort

By acting as a lender of immediate resort, the Fed may have steadied markets, but it also left the underlying incentives unchanged, setting the stage for the next crisis and putting its independence under strain.

Amit Seru

December 25, 2025 at 6:01 AM IST

Federal Reserve

Risk Sensitive Banking: Strength, Scale and Stability Beyond 2026

Strong balance sheets give banks room to grow, but tighter liquidity, sharper risk norms and new capital rules will test how sustainably that growth is delivered.

K. Srinivasa Rao

December 24, 2025 at 6:10 AM IST

A Decade of Rupee Depreciation: Why This Time Was Different

The rupee’s 2015–25 slide looks dramatic in headline terms, but unlike past episodes it unfolded gradually, supported by services exports, reserves and RBI’s volatility management.

Babuji K

December 22, 2025 at 5:23 AM IST

India’s Bond Market Is No Longer Listening to the RBI

Rate cuts, benign inflation and strong growth optics should have eased yields. The bond market’s refusal to comply is a warning of deeper structural fault lines.

Madhavi Arora

December 18, 2025 at 6:05 AM IST

MPC Moves Signal the Arrival of a Post-Cycle Policy Regime

Below-target disinflation, a structural liquidity pivot, and the RBI’s sharp separation of stance from liquidity signal a new level of complexity that requires a post-cycle reading.

Kalyan Ram

December 10, 2025 at 7:01 AM IST

Monetary Policy

December Cut for Inflation, a February Cut for Growth

India’s December cut signalled entrenched disinflation, yet weakening growth may force another move in February as liquidity and demand slip.

Yield Scribe

December 8, 2025 at 2:34 AM IST

Monetary Policy

RBI’s Dovish Turn Clouds the Story of India’s Goldilocks Economy

Accommodative push contrasts with claims of strong growth and benign inflation

Dhananjay Sinha

December 5, 2025 at 3:27 PM IST

iStock.com

Monetary Policy

RBI’s Rate Cut Shows Rupee is No Obstacle to Easing

The MPC cut rates despite the rupee’s wobble, signalling what policy has long implied. The currency is simply not a factor in the RBI’s rate calculus.

BasisPoint Groupthink

December 5, 2025 at 2:12 PM IST

Opinion

Malhotra Keeps Rate Cuts in Play, but Will He Move Again?

Governor Malhotra kept the easing cycle alive on Friday, yet his real objective may be to extract transmission rather than commit to another cut.

Kalyan Ram

December 5, 2025 at 11:06 AM IST

Poonam Gupta

MPC Review

Policy Reflects Growth Concerns

Repo cut and liquidity infusion signalled the RBI’s deeper worry that growth momentum is softening despite strong headline numbers.

Rupa Rege Nitsure

December 5, 2025 at 8:48 AM IST

Monetary Policy

RBI Must Avoid June’s Missteps as Stance and Signals Take Centre Stage

The RBI’s December review must prioritise clear signalling and avoid June’s mistakes.

Richard Fargose

December 4, 2025 at 5:28 AM IST

RBI Tweets

Rupee Dilemma: The Case for Strategic Silence

RBI’s reticence, even as the rupee slips past 90, has unsettled markets. But sometimes, saying more only compounds the problem.

BasisPoint Groupthink

December 4, 2025 at 4:30 AM IST

Monetary Policy

Why OMOs Matter in This MPC

In a cycle where the headlines flatter to deceive, the liquidity stance, even more than the repo rate action, will do the heavy lifting.

Madhavi Arora

December 1, 2025 at 9:26 AM IST

Monetary Policy

A Rate Cut Now Could Strengthen India’s Growth Cushion

With inflation at historic lows and growth surprising on the upside, the RBI may opt for a calibrated repo rate cut to protect India’s global position.

K. Srinivasa Rao

December 1, 2025 at 7:02 AM IST

RBI Trade Relief Measures Timely, Targeted With a Clear Sunset Window

The RBI’s trade relief package shows an institution relying on hard-earned crisis lessons to offer temporary support without loosening discipline.

Mint Owl

November 19, 2025 at 11:05 AM IST

Malhotra’s RBI: Between Freedom and Friction

Malhotra completes his first year at the RBI next month. His tenure so far reveals a governor intent on pushing boundaries, loosening rules, and learning where freedom ends and systemic risk begins.

R. Gurumurthy

November 17, 2025 at 6:11 AM IST

RBI

Monetary Policy

Inflation Targeting Needs Flexibility, Not Unanimity

When monetary consensus turns to groupthink, inflation targeting risks losing its flexibility—and its purpose.

Ashima Goyal

November 13, 2025 at 2:35 AM IST

RBI’s Auction Rebuff Calms Bonds, but Upside Risks to Yields Remain

India’s central bank’s surprise rejection of bids in a seven-year bond sale soothed markets briefly, yet underlying demand-supply tensions remain entrenched.

Yield Scribe

November 2, 2025 at 3:13 PM IST

Opinion

Gold’s Rational Resilience in an Irrational World

For central banks, gold is not a relic of history but a rational hedge against the politics for & of money, the fragility of debt, and the unpredictability of power.

Srinath Sridharan

October 12, 2025 at 3:33 PM IST

Screengrab from "RBI Unlocked: Beyond the Rupee" series (JioHotstar)

Centre Primes States With Early Cash Before Festivals

New Delhi’s advance tax devolution gives states more firepower, but risks widening bond spreads and straining its own balance sheet.

BasisPoint Insight

October 3, 2025 at 12:28 PM IST

iStock.com

Monetary Policy

Review of MPC Decision: What Does it Mean to be Forward-Looking?

Is it forward-looking to let policy be decided by base effects, rather than encouraging the anchoring of inflation expectations at the target?

Ashima Goyal

October 1, 2025 at 5:26 PM IST

Monetary Policy

No Matter What MPC Does, RBI Communication has to do Some Heavy Lifting

RBI’s biggest challenge is not what it does on rates, but how it explains the why, why not and what next to markets and the wider economy.

Mint Owl

September 30, 2025 at 12:34 PM IST

RBI

Why RBI Must Define CRR as a Legitimate LoLR Tool

RBI must define CRR as a true Lender-of-Last-Resort tool to provide banks with assured liquidity support during crises.

Karan Mehrishi

September 30, 2025 at 10:56 AM IST

Monetary Policy

Time for RBI to Recount, Reset

Beyond the rate call, the October review must recount what has been done, what was achieved, and set the compass for policy in the year ahead.

BasisPoint Groupthink

September 30, 2025 at 10:23 AM IST

iStock.com

Why Liquidity Could Be the Next Big Breakthrough for India’s AIF Market

India’s AIF market has soared in scale, but illiquidity holds it back. A secondary market could be the breakthrough to unlock trust, access and capital.

Omkar Ghaisas

September 11, 2025 at 8:16 AM IST

iStock.com

State Bond Glut is Breaking Monetary Transmission

Excess supply of state government bonds is distorting markets, widening spreads, and choking the Reserve Bank’s monetary transmission.

Yield Scribe

September 3, 2025 at 7:40 AM IST

Book Review

God Laughs, Markets Listen, and the Reddyisms that Still Resonate

From wit and ambiguity to humility and integrity, YV Reddy’s new book shows why values matter more than plans in an uncertain world.

Kalyan Ram

August 31, 2025 at 4:45 AM IST

Open Mouths, Open Markets, and RBI’s Signalling Gap

The RBI’s June gamble of frontloaded easing and a sudden neutral stance has backfired, raising borrowing costs. Governor Malhotra now needs both words and deeds.

BasisPoint Groupthink

August 27, 2025 at 6:45 AM IST

RBI

India’s Banks Need a New Business Model Before Liquidity Risks Bite Harder

Deposit growth is slowing, liquidity risks are rising, and RBI rules are shifting. India’s banks must rewire their business models before the next shock.

K. Srinivasa Rao

August 14, 2025 at 7:30 AM IST

iStock.com/lakshmiprasad S

The RBI’s Curious Attachment to a Benchmark That Hardly Trades

The RBI’s liquidity panel sticks with WACR as its policy anchor, even though the market it reflects is shrinking fast. Reform? Or regulatory nostalgia?

R. Gurumurthy

August 8, 2025 at 6:43 AM IST

Monetary Policy

RBI’s Growth Hopes Mask Limits of Policy Easing

The RBI’s optimism on growth belies structural weaknesses and hints that the impact of front-loaded rate cuts may already be waning.

Dhananjay Sinha

August 6, 2025 at 2:14 PM IST

Poonam Gupta

Monetary Policy

RBI Panel Recommends Retaining Weighted Average Call Rate as Policy Anchor

RBI’s internal group recommends retaining the weighted average call rate as the policy anchor, citing its strong correlation with money market rates and effective signal transmission.

BasisPoint Insight

August 6, 2025 at 7:15 AM IST

RBI Expected to Pause, but Weak Data Opens Door to Further Cuts

The MPC is expected to hold rates steady, but easing bias remains amid low inflation, moderating growth, and risks from US tariffs.

BasisPoint Insight

August 4, 2025 at 12:13 PM IST

Monetary Policy

RBI Unlikely to Cut Repo Rate as Focus Turns to Credit Transmission

With inflation cooling and liquidity ample, RBI is set to hold rates and wait for credit transmission before fresh policy moves.

K. Srinivasa Rao

August 4, 2025 at 3:44 AM IST

RBI Steps in With ₹500 Billion VRR as Call Rate Hits Corridor Ceiling

BasisPoint Insight

July 23, 2025 at 8:01 AM IST

India’s Recovery Plan Is Missing Its Fiscal Half

While the RBI has acted to support growth, the Finance Ministry’s virtual silence since the Budget leaves policy looking oddly one-handed.

Dhananjay Sinha

Kalyan Ram

July 20, 2025 at 6:52 AM IST

Monetary Transmission Is Both Alive And Dead Like Schrödinger’s Cat

Liquidity is plentiful, rates are low, yet credit growth is muted. Monetary transmission in India remains a paradox that defies easy solutions.

Yield Scribe

July 7, 2025 at 5:13 AM IST

iStock.com

Interview

Tata Or Batata? Nilesh Shah Lays Out India’s Market Mindmap

From HFT to FDI, inflation myths to rupee truth, Nilesh Shah maps India’s market future—in metaphors only he can mint.

BasisPoint Insight

June 26, 2025 at 4:29 AM IST

AI Generated

MPC Minutes Reveal Wobbly Logic Behind the Stance Shift

The June MPC minutes show a committee leaning hard into caution, but its reasoning for abandoning the accommodative stance reveals some puzzling dissonance.

BasisPoint Groupthink

June 21, 2025 at 4:23 AM IST

Poonam Gupta

Surplus Transfer: Windfall For Government, Balancing Act For RBI

By transferring a record surplus to the central government and a larger chunk to the risk buffers, the RBI has balanced between supporting fiscal needs and preserving policy credibility.

R. Gurumurthy

June 9, 2025 at 11:19 AM IST

Anurag Vijay/CC

RBI’s Abrupt Policy Shift Risks Undermining Its Own Credibility

Markets do not fear rate cuts or hikes. They fear a central bank that shifts stance and floods the system with liquidity before the economy is ready.

Kalyan Ram

June 6, 2025 at 3:09 PM IST

Screengrab from RBI Press Conference

RBI Pushes For Better Rate Transmission, But Structural Frictions Persist

RBI steps up easing with rate and CRR cuts, but uneven liquidity, sticky bank rates, and cautious lending slow real transmission to the economy.

Richard Fargose

June 6, 2025 at 2:49 PM IST

Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash

Monetary Intent And Content Matter, Not Just The Mic

Authority and influence in central banking are earned through judgement, not decibels.

Srinath Sridharan

June 6, 2025 at 12:47 PM IST

Monetary Policy

RBI Frontloads Hyper Accommodation

The RBI’s frontloaded stimulus lifts markets, but its ability to revive growth is constrained by weak income, tepid investment, and global drag.

Dhananjay Sinha

June 6, 2025 at 10:38 AM IST

iStock.com

Monetary Policy

RBI’s New Dharma: Bold Cuts, Balanced Stance

With its bold cuts in repo rate and CRR, and the shift in stance, the RBI has tried to play its role in pushing growth but has a contingency plan, should things go wrong.

Abheek Barua

June 6, 2025 at 9:49 AM IST

RBI

No Mic For Deputy Governor Gupta In RBI’s Monetary Opera

India’s newest monetary policymaker sat silent through a blockbuster policy. Poonam Gupta’s RBI debut came and went, with barely a word.

BasisPoint Groupthink

June 6, 2025 at 8:13 AM IST

Screengrab of RBI press conference

Monetary Policy

Operation Frontload: RBI Fires All Weapons, Then Calls For Peace

RBI unleashed a surprise rate-and-liquidity barrage, then changed stance to neutral. Was this pre-emption, or a response to unseen threats?

BasisPoint Groupthink

June 6, 2025 at 7:26 AM IST

PIB

Record RBI Dividend Payouts Are A Short-Term Fix With Long-Term Risks

Another likely record dividend to the Centre may offer fiscal relief, but could undermine monetary stability and currency management in an uncertain global climate.

Dhananjay Sinha

May 22, 2025 at 4:02 AM IST

iStock.com

LAF@25: SDF – From A Corridor To A Comfort Zone

Part 2 of our LAF@25 series explores how the Standing Deposit Facility may be steering India’s liquidity corridor towards a de facto floor regime.

R. Gurumurthy

May 20, 2025 at 3:37 AM IST

RBI Need Not Rush To 5% As Liquidity Does The Heavy-Lifting

The RBI has uncoupled its stance from liquidity. That may make aggressive rate cuts less likely, even if monetary conditions stay easy.

BasisPoint Groupthink

May 19, 2025 at 5:56 AM IST

RBI Tweets

LAF@25: The Shifting Core Of India’s Monetary Operations

As the RBI’s Liquidity Adjustment Facility turns 25, this three-part series traces its evolution, limitations, and future as a monetary policy mainstay.

R. Gurumurthy

May 19, 2025 at 5:11 AM IST

iStock.com

LAF, SDF, MSF - Gupta’s Learning Curve Begins With ABCs Of WACR Vs SORR

The new RBI deputy governor takes charge amid a fluid framework and the push to convert surplus liquidity into transmission. It is more than the alphabet soup of acronyms that confronts her.

BasisPoint Groupthink

May 3, 2025 at 4:25 AM IST

Liquidity: Sterilisation, Caution, Or Doubling Down?

FX book chickens come home to roost in 2025-26, and the RBI’s liquidity injections may need to grow even larger to avoid a fresh policy transmission hiccup.

Vivek Kumar

May 1, 2025 at 3:49 AM IST

Is the RBI’s Liquidity Blitz a Signal of Deeper Economic Strain?

An outsized bond purchase plan and aggressive liquidity support hint at a more serious undercurrent: faltering money supply, weak credit momentum, and growth worries.

BasisPoint Groupthink

April 28, 2025 at 4:15 PM IST

Monetary Policy

RBI Must Resist Calls To Reopen The Fixed Rate Repo Window

Calls to revive the fixed repo window are gaining ground. The RBI must resist — or risk undoing a decade of hard-won liquidity discipline.

Basis Pundit

April 7, 2025 at 2:44 PM IST

Rupee Steadies As RBI Fires On All Fronts To Calm FX And Liquidity

The rupee’s slide reversed as RBI stepped in with dollar sales, swap deals, and liquidity tools to restore calm without chasing a fixed exchange rate.

Manoj Rane

April 4, 2025 at 3:38 PM IST

Anurag Vijay/CC

RBI Sharpens Liquidity Playbook With April OMOs to Anchor Yields, Transmission

Bond purchases continue even as liquidity turns surplus, reinforcing RBI's push for smooth rate transmission and economic support.

Richard Fargose

April 2, 2025 at 2:23 AM IST

RBI's Rate Cut Fails To Ease Market Rates Amid Tight Liquidity Grip

Despite easing inflation and a long-awaited rate cut, tight liquidity and weak transmission have kept market rates stubbornly high under RBI’s watch.

Manoj Rane

March 28, 2025 at 5:32 AM IST

Indian Banking System Liquidity Set To Shift From Scarcity To Surplus, Says QuantEco

BasisPoint Insight

March 19, 2025 at 8:59 AM IST

RBI’s Liquidity Blind Spot: Growth Needs A Clearer Policy

The Reserve Bank of India’s liquidity strategy has unsettled markets and heightened economic risks. A decisive shift is needed to safeguard growth just as inflation appears contained.

G. Mahalingam

March 18, 2025 at 6:56 AM IST

Anurag Vijay/CC

RBI Liquidity: Rectitude, Discretion And King Canute

RBI must maintain core liquidity surplus at 0.5%-1.0% of NDTL in FY26 to ensure credit flow. Durable tools over repo reliance key to stability.

Vivek Kumar

March 8, 2025 at 7:22 AM IST

Anurag Vijay/CC

The Bureau

Risk-On Returns to Asia as Trump Signals Iran Conflict May End Soon

US Treasury Secretary Says Allowed India to Buy Russian Crude Oil for 30 Days

Auto Retail Sales Surge to Record February Levels, Led by Two-Wheelers and Tractors

GAIL Reports Zero LNG Allocation from Petronet Following Strait of Hormuz Force Majeure

Bajaj Auto Total Sales Rise 27% on Year to 448,259 Units in February

Royal Enfield February Sales Rise 11% to 100,905 Units; Board Approves ₹9.58 Billion Expansion

Maruti Suzuki February 2026 Sales Rise 7.3% on Year to 213,995 Units; Exports Surge

New GDP Data: Problem Fixed, Or Made Worse?

Learning to Shoot: I Tried to Fly Before I Could Walk