In October 2025, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) launched the 4th edition of its global hackathon ‘HaRBInger 2025: Innovation for Transformation’, designed to leverage emerging technologies to build innovative, secure and user-centric financial solutions.
- This year’s global hackathon is centred on the theme ‘Secure Banking: Powered by Identity, Integrity, and Inclusivity’.
Exam Hints:
- What? Launch of Global Hackathon
- Hackathon Name: ‘HaRBInger 2025: Innovation for Transformation’
- Edition: 4th
- Launched by: RBI
- Develop Solution on themes: tokenised Know Your Customer (KYC); offline Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC); and enhancing trust
- Monetary Prize: Winner (Rs 40 lakh); Runner-up (Rs 20 lakh); a special prize-best all-woman team (Rs 20 lakh) stipend for prototype development (Rs 5 lakh)
- RBI Exemption : SWAMIH Fund-I allowed under special AIF exemption
- Purpose: To attract bank & NBFC investments
- Previous Limits: RBI capped individual investment at 10% and total at 20% of fund corpus.
About HaRBInger 2025:
Overview: HaRBInger 2025, conceptualized by the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH), provides a unique platform that brings together global innovators, developers, entrepreneurs, students and technology professionals to co-create solutions for the banking and financial sector.
Key Theme: Under this hackathon, the eligible entities and individuals are invited to develop technology-driven solutions under three problem statements: tokenised Know Your Customer (KYC); offline Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC); and enhancing trust.
Participation: All entities, teams or individuals, who are aged 18 years and above, are eligible to participate in this global hackathon.
Winners: For each problem statement, the winning team will receive Rs 40 lakh and the Runner-up team will receive Rs 20 lakh.
- In addition to that, a special prize will be given to the best all-woman team, with a monetary prize of Rs 20 lakh.
- As per RBI, each selected team will receive financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh to develop working prototypes.
SWAMIH Fund-I Gets Special Exemption to Encourage Institutional Investment
In October 2025, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed SWAMIH Investment Fund-I, the Special Window for Affordable and Mid-Income Housing, to operate under a specified exemption from certain Reserve Bank of India (Investment in Alternate Investment Fund,AIF) Directions, 2025.
- This exemption is designed to motivate regulated entities, including banks and non-banking financial companies, to invest in the fund.
About SWAMIH Investment Fund-I:
Establishment : SWAMIH Investment Fund-I, launched in 2019, is a government-backed initiative managed by SBICAP Ventures Limited., a subsidiary of the State Bank of India(SBI).
Objective : The fund focuses on providing debt financing to complete stalled and stressed residential projects in the affordable and mid-income housing sectors.
Previous Investment Limits: Earlier, RBI rules restricted individual investments by regulated entities in any AIF to 10% of the fund’s corpus, with a total cap of 20% collectively.
About Reserve Bank of India (RBI):
Governor- Sanjay Malhotra
Headquarters- Mumbai, Maharashtra
Established- 1935
