The Department of Land Resources (DoLR), Ministry of Rural Development, recently held a high-level meeting with the RBI Innovation Hub (RBIH) to explore how Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) can strengthen land governance and enable seamless, consent-based digital lending.
High-level meet
Chaired by Narendra Bhooshan, Secretary, Department of Land Resources, the meeting featured interactions with Mr. Sahil Kini, CEO, RBI Innovation Hub, along with Abhishek Poddar, Chief Product Officer; Arun Seethamraju, Vice President; and Ms. Aditi Dubey, Assistant General Manager – Solutioning & Partnerships, RBIH.
Officials from DoLR included Parikipandla Narahari, Joint Secretary (Land Resources); Shyam Kumar, Director (Land Resources); and Amit Kumar Singh, Director (Land Resources).
Key areas
Discussions centred on aligning the Department’s digital land governance initiatives with the Unified Lending Interface (ULI) to improve access to institutional credit—especially for farmers and rural citizens—through authenticated, interoperable digital land records.
The two sides deliberated on key areas of collaboration, including secure and standardized access to verified digital land records; faster digital delivery of Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) and other agricultural loans; reduced transaction costs and improved loan processing timelines; and stronger risk management through mortgage information and flag-marking mechanisms to help prevent multiple financing against the same land parcel.
Digital asset
The meeting also highlighted the need for common data standards and API interoperability, broader use of ULPIN (Bhu-Aadhaar), and deeper coordination between land governance and financial sector stakeholders to promote financial inclusion by enabling land to function as a trusted digital asset for formal credit.
DoLR reaffirmed its commitment to working closely with RBIH and other stakeholders to build a secure, interoperable, and citizen-centric DPI that strengthens land governance while expanding access to formal credit across rural India.