The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is working strategically to reach 1 million active customers in Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) or electronic rupees by the end of this month.
Responding to media questions about the expected launch of the CBDC, RBI Deputy Governor T. Ravi Sankar said: ConfirmedHowever, no release date has been set yet.
Shankar stressed that the transition to CBDC use across the country is a gradual and coordinated process, primarily focused on internalizing lessons learned from increasing CBDC adoption. .
Major cities in India launch pilot programs to introduce CBDCs
On December 1, 2022, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) launched the initial pilot phase of the electronic rupee in the retail sector. This phase was limited to selected locations and involved a closed user group made up of customers and sellers nationwide.
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At the same time, from 1 November 2022, the e-rupee pilot program in the wholesale sector has also been launched. The program facilitates secondary market trading of government securities and has nine participating banks. These efforts have taken important steps in testing and introducing the electronic rupee in various sectors of the economy.
The Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) pilot program was initially launched in four cities: Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Bhubaneswar.
The survey was conducted with a select group of customers and merchants in these locations. And as the program progressed and insights were gained, its reach was gradually expanded to other cities across the country.
Cities included in the expansion include Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Gangtok, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Lucknow, Patna and Shimla.
RBI, CBDC QR Codes to Interoperate with UPI Systems
This expansion allowed a wider range of participants to experience and provide feedback on the CBDC initiative. Initially, the CBDC project involved his four banks: State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, YES Bank and IDFC First Bank. These banks played an important role in the early stages of the project.
However, as the pilot program progressed and demonstrated promising results, more banks realized the importance of joining the electronic rupee initiative.
Later, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank also joined the project, expanding cooperation efforts between various financial institutions in the development and implementation of CBDC.
The RBI deputy governor said the central bank plans to make the CBDC QR code interoperable with India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which has seen great success.
The UPI system facilitates digital banking transactions, enabling individuals and merchants to receive payments through various channels such as debit and credit cards, internet banking and mobile wallets.
UPI is very popular in India and QR code scanning is a widely used feature for seamless payments between individuals and merchants. CBDC allows recipients to receive digital currency and store it securely in their wallet.
The CBDC QR code and UPI integration will provide users with a convenient and familiar way to trade and consume digital currencies, further enhancing the usability and adoption of CBDC in the Indian financial ecosystem.
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