The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has declared that, following the successful conclusion of a pilot program evaluating the wholesale usage of its CBDC, it is prepared to proceed to the next stage in developing its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital rupee.
According to the Economic Times of India’s report, the bank would then launch a pilot program to investigate the usage of a retail digital rupee that the general public will be able to use. Within the upcoming month, the retail digital rupee pilot is anticipated to commence.
Who’ll be the participating banks?
State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of Baroda (BOB), ICICI Bank, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank, and IDFC First Bank are a few of the participants. In addition, all of the commercial banks in the nation are reportedly planning to participate in the pilot at some time.
Each bank participating in the study will utilize 10,000 to 50,000 users to test the CBDC. The PayNearby and Bankit platforms will work with the banks to add the new payment option. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) will be in charge of the CBDC infrastructure.
India launched a CBDC rather quickly. The first ideas were revealed in February 2022 by Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who said that a digital rupee would provide India’s economy with a “huge boost.” The Reserve Bank of India then suggested a three-step graded rollout strategy in an effort to upset the established financial system as little as possible.
