India’s pilot retail CBDC program, which was launched December 1, has attracted 50,000 users and 5,000 merchants. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), stated that 0.77 million e–rupee transactions were made in the period of two months.
Right now, transactions in digital rupee (erupee), are only available in a small group of merchants, cities and banks.
India CBDC Plan Will Go Slow
We want the process of moving forward, but we also want it to take place slowly and steadily. T Rabi Sankar (Deputy Governor of RBI), stated that we are not in a hurry to make things happen quickly at a post-policy press conference this week.
He said that the RBI had its targets in terms merchants and users, and that it would move slowly.
Officially, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced during her budget speech in February 2022 that the country would launch its CBDC within the next financial year 2022-2023. The RBI and Indian finance ministry both confirmed that the e–rupee would be launched in the same calendar year. The RBI finally launched the erupee in both the wholesale and retail segments on November 1st.
The RBI’s attitude towards cryptocurrencies is too dismissive. Its plans to introduce CBDC are very cautious. The bank has stopped accepting new users after 50,000 users have been added. The ongoing e-rupee pilot will be expanded to include five additional banks and nine cities in the next phase.
The Economic Times reports that the RBI doesn’t want to find itself in a position in which it has to do something without understanding the potential impact. reported As Sankar clarifies the stance of RBI
Bankers are not impressed by wholesale CBDC
The wholesale pilot was a far cry from the enthusiasm shown by retail CBDC for CBDC. It failed to impress banks after a month. CryptoPotato December, reported. Currently, e-rupee is only being used to buy government securities on the secondary market.
It is designed to facilitate interbank settlements in security markets by playing the clearing house and settlement guarantee roles. The central bank guarantees the e-rupee. Bankers do not find it as convenient to send e-rupee settlements per trade, but rather than sending batches of settlements through the existing clearinghouse system, they prefer to send settlement batches.
A different perspective: Last month, at the annual shareholders meeting, Alfred Kelly, CEO, digital payments company Visa, stated that stablecoins as well as CBDC could play meaningful roles in global payment.