New Delhi (India), 30th May 2023: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) intends to expand the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) pilot programme and integrate new use cases and capabilities in 2023-24.
In the Annual Report for 2023-24 the RBI said, “During 2023-24, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) aims at expanding the ongoing pilots in CBDC-Retail and CBDC-Wholesale by incorporating various use cases and features.”
The report further said, “Taking forward digitisation efforts announced in the Union Budget 2022-23, the Reserve Bank introduced its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in phases during the year, with the launch of pilots for Digital Rupee (e`) in the wholesale and retail segments on November 1, 2022 and December 1, 2022, respectively.”
The RBI, the digital rupee CBDC is a digital type of sovereign currency. The central bank recommended two types of Digital Rupees: CBDC-Wholesale (CBDC-W) and CBDC-Retail (CBDC-R). CBDC-Wholesale is only available to certain financial institutions, whereas CBDC-Retail is available to everyone, including the private sector, non-financial individuals, and enterprises.
The wholesale Digital Rupee segment pilot programme began on November 1, 2022. The settlement of secondary market transactions in government securities (G-secs) is the use case for this pilot.
On December 1, 2022, the first CBDC-Retail pilot was announced. The retail e-Rupee is available in values of 50 paise, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, and 2000, however the wholesale e-Rupee has no denomination.
