PM Narendra Modi to launch RBI retail direct scheme on Friday

India is set to open up its sovereign bond market to individual buyers on Friday as it seeks to widen the investor base to fund the government’s massive borrowing programme. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the so-called ‘RBI Retail Direct Scheme’ for investors on Friday, the Reserve Bank of India said. 

Retail investors can open and maintain their government securities account with the RBI free of cost, it said. 

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had first flagged this initiative in a February policy review while calling it a “major structural reform”.