"Will RBI's goal be achieved or is it just a dream?"
After the monetary policy announcement, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor T Rabi Shankar is seen aiming to reach one million users for his country's central bank digital currency (CBDC) dubbed the Digital Rupee by the end of June 2023.
While the RBI is still conducting pilot tests and does not have a specific timeline, Shankar said it will be a gradual change that focuses on internal learning through the use of CBDCs.
For the record, the RBI has introduced the digital version of the rupee for large-scale transactions on November 1, 2022 and subsequently conducted the first test of the digital rupee for the general public on December 1, 2022.
The CBDC pilot program will start in four cities, namely Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Bhubaneswar then gradually expand to other cities such as Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Gangtok, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Lucknow, Patna and Shimla.
Initially, only State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, YES Bank and IDFC First Bank were involved in the CBDC project but later Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank also joined.
While Mint Road also plans to make CBDC QR codes interoperable with the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), where it allows digital banking transactions and recipients to receive payments via debit or credit cards, internet banking and mobile wallets.
When someone transfers CBDC from an individual or store, it will move from wallet to wallet without any bank mediation.
