Digital land records, ULI integration to ease credit for farmers

The Department of Land Resources and RBI Innovation Hub are exploring integrating digital land records with the Unified Lending Interface (ULI). This aims to provide faster, secure, and consent-based institutional credit to farmers and rural citizens.

The Department of Land Resources (DoLR) is exploring the integration of digital land records with the Unified Lending Interface (ULI) to enable faster, secure and consent-based access to institutional credit, particularly for farmers and rural citizens, according to a release by the Ministry of Rural Development.

Synergizing Land Governance and Digital Lending

The Department of Land Resources held a high-level meeting with the RBI Innovation Hub (RBIH) to explore the convergence of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for land governance and digital lending. The meeting was chaired by Department of Land Resources Secretary Narendra Bhooshan, who interacted with RBI Innovation Hub Chief Executive Officer Sahil Kini and other senior officials.

According to the ministry, the discussions focused on creating synergies between the Department's digital land governance initiatives and the ULI to enable "seamless, secure, and consent-based credit delivery, particularly for farmers and rural citizens."

The participants discussed how authenticated and interoperable digital land records could improve access to institutional credit while strengthening transparency and efficiency in the lending ecosystem.

Key Areas of Collaboration

Key areas of collaboration included enabling secure and standardised access to authenticated digital land records, accelerating the digital delivery of Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) and other agricultural loans, reducing transaction costs and improving loan processing time.

The discussions also covered measures to strengthen risk management through mortgage information and flag-marking mechanisms to help prevent multiple financing against the same land parcel, while promoting financial inclusion by enabling land records to function as trusted digital assets for accessing formal credit.

The meeting also emphasised the need to adopt common data standards, ensure API interoperability, expand the use of the Unique Land Parcel Identification Number (ULPIN), also known as Bhu-Aadhaar, and strengthen collaboration between land governance and financial sector stakeholders.

The ministry said the Department of Land Resources has reaffirmed its commitment to working with RBI Innovation Hub and other stakeholders to build a "secure, interoperable, and citizen-centric Digital Public Infrastructure" that strengthens land governance while expanding access to formal credit across rural India. (ANI)

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