New Delhi, May 26 -- The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) transfer of its 2025-26 surplus to the government was under watch for any sign of fiscal over-support at the cost of its own risk cushion. Declared at nearly Rs.2.9 trillion, up 6.7% from last year's transfer for 2024-25, it appears to have balanced imperatives well in today's macro-economic context.

RBI's carve-out for its contingent risk buffer was 6.5% of the size of its balance sheet, slashed from last year's 7.5%, the upper limit of a range deemed prudent.

On a growing asset base-its balance sheet grew by around 21% to almost Rs.92 trillion on 31 March-that slash enlarged the central bank's payout, but the uptrend witnessed across recent years in such transfers is a story of ro...