By October, the Reserve Bank of India will probably start a trial program for Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) for interbank borrowing.
Ajay Kumar Choudhary, executive director of the Reserve Bank of India, stated on Sunday that the pilot program for Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) for interbank borrowing or call money market operations is set to begin in October.
On November 1, 2022, the Digital Rupee-Wholesale (e-W) trial of the wholesale CBDC was introduced, with the use case restricted to the settlement of secondary market transactions in government securities.
“The RBI will introduce the wholesale CBDC in the call market either this month or next month,” Choudhary said here, on the eve of the G20 Leaders’ Summit.
Nirmala Sitharaman, the finance minister, announced the implementation of CBDC in the Union Budget 2022–2023; the necessary changes to the relevant part of the RBI Act, 1934, were made with the adoption of the Finance Bill 2022.
For its pilot project for wholesale CBDC, the RBI chose nine banks: State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, YES Bank, IDFC First Bank, and HSBC.
Additionally, on December 1, 2022, the central bank will roll out a pilot for the CBDC (e-R) retail version. The e-R is a digital token that serves as money and is represented by legal tender.
It is being distributed in the same denominations as coins and paper money. Through financial intermediaries like banks, it is being spread. Through a digital wallet provided by the collaborating banks, users can conduct transactions with e-R.
At the G20 Summit’s exhibition pavilion, the RBI is displaying several digital financial sector activities.
These include the CBDC, UPI One World, RuPay On-The-Go, and Public Tech Platform (PTP) for Frictionless Credit.
