India plans phased launch of e-rupee, joining China in push for digital currencies
- The Reserve Bank of India will soon kick off a limited pilot launch for the e-rupee, with the aim of launching the digital currency this year
- In the note, the central bank acknowledged that privacy and data protection were a matter of concern when designing digital currencies
India’s central bank is working toward a phased introduction of a digital currency and will put forth a final design after it has conducted large scale pilot projects.
The Reserve Bank of India is exploring the option of implementation of an account-based central bank digital currency or CBDC for the wholesale segment and token-based currency for the retail sector, it said in a paper released on Friday. The digital currency will be referred to as the e-rupee and will provide an additional option to all the available forms of money, it said.
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“As there are multiple compelling motivations for the introduction of CBDCs, the RBI is currently engaged in working towards a phased implementation strategy, going step by step through various stages of pilots followed by the final launch,” the paper said.
The RBI will soon kick off a limited pilot launch for the e-rupee.
The “CBDC holds a lot of promises by way of ensuring transparency, and low cost of operation among other benefits and the potential to expand the existing payment systems to address the needs of a wider category of users,” the RBI said.
In the note the RBI acknowledged that privacy and data protection were a matter of concern when it comes to designing CBDCs.