"This will be done next fiscal...We will have our cash and debt management meeting towards the end of this financial year and hopefully, from the first or second month of the next fiscal, we will launch inflation-indexed bonds," Deputy Governor HR Khan told reporters at a customary post-Budget press conference here.
The central bank, for some time, has been planning to introduce IIBs to wean away investors from gold, who were investing in the yellow metal as a hedge against inflation.
Another Deputy Governor Urjit Patel said "the IIBs would increase choice for savers and the instrument will be particularly attractive for risk-averse savers, who will get assured real returns. IIBs are good hedging instruments against inflation.
"It should encourage household savings to shy away from gold, that is largely unproductive for the economy. This will also help in addressing Current Account Deficit(CAD) risk in the economy as high gold import in recent years had contributed significantly to the widening of CAD," Patel said.
Meanwhile, referring to the conducting of open market operations (OMOs) with regard to the government borrowing programme, Khan said, "as far as OMOs are concerned, we do keep deficit condition in the market (in mind) not so much the borrowing requirement of the government (to conduct OMOs).