Need to be prepared for vulnerability to economy: FSDC
The Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) comprising market regulators that met under the chairmanship of finance minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday agreed to be in a state of preparedness for managing any external or internal vulnerability to the Indian economy.
At the 17th meeting of FSDC, chief economic adviser in the finance ministry Arvind Subramanian made a presentation on the state of the economy. “The Council noted that India has macro-economic stability today on the back of improvements in its macro-economic fundamentals, structural reforms with the launch of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), action being taken to address the Twin Balance Sheet (TBS) challenge, extraordinary financial market confidence, reflected in high and rising bond and especially stock valuations and long-term positive consequences of demonetization. The Council also discussed the issues and challenges facing the Indian economy and Members agreed on the need to keep constant vigil and be in a state of preparedness of managing any external and internal vulnerabilities,” the finance ministry said in a statement.
The Council also took note of the progress of Financial Sector Assessment Program for India, jointly conducted by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. “Council directed that the assessment report should be finalized by the end of this calendar year,” the state- ment said.
FSDC took note of the developments and progress made in setting up of Computer Emergency Response Team in the Financial Sector (CERT-Fin) and Financial Data Management Centre and discussed measures for timebound implementation of the institution building initiative.
An expert group instituted by FSDC has proposed the setting up of an independent CERT-Fin to be the cyber warrior of the financial sector. CERT-Fin will be the key to ensuring a comprehensive cybersecurity framework for the financial sector, especially at a time when there has been a burst of activity in the fintech space as India makes efforts to embrace a less-cash economy.
In the Union budget for 2017-18, finance minister Arun Jaitley had announced the setting up of CERT-Fin. Subsequently, the government set up the expert group to give shape to this entity.
A brief report on the activities undertaken by the FSDC subcommittee chaired by Reserve Bank of India governor Urjit Patel was placed before the FSDC.