India’s eRupee CBDC to get offline payments feature, programmability tweaks: RBI Governor

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is trying to adopt an offline strategy to ensure that eRupee CBDC penetrates the financial system of rural and remote parts of India. RBI Governor Shakti Kanta Das reportedly said that the central bank plans to experiment with offline solutions to CBDC In parts of India that are not as connected to the internet as in developed cities. According to reports, these plans have been under discussion since March last year. Das disclosed these details at the end of the three-day Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting hosted by the RBI on Thursday.

Offline solutions to adopt CBDC will soon enter the trial phase for hilly and rural areas of the country. These programmability-based solutions will include both proximity and non-proximity, Das said, without divulging further details. “It is proposed to introduce an offline functionality in CBDC-R (Retail) to enable transactions in areas with poor or limited internet connectivity,” the RBI Governor said. described on Thursday.

The RBI plans to allow traders and corporates to modify the capacity of the CBDC program to expand its use cases. These may include covering the travel expenses of company employees.

“Programmability will allow consumers like government agencies to ensure that payments are made for defined benefits. Similarly, corporates will be able to program specific expenses for their employees like business travel,” Das added.

A central bank digital currency, or CBDC, is a virtual representation of any fiat currency on blockchain networks. Shifting transactions from cash notes to the CBDC will reduce the bank’s reliance on paper-based notes and also maintain a permanent financial record that cannot be altered.

India’s digital rupee CBDC was launched by the RBI on 1 December 2022 on a pilot basis. In the Union Budget 2022-23, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced plans to roll out CBDC for trial purposes.

Gradually, several Indian banks, including State Bank of India (SBI) and Canara Bank, tested the CBDC pilot for its person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions. Currently, eRupee is in its advanced trial stages with several large public and private lenders participating in these trials along with selected small, medium and large scale merchants.

Reliance General Insurance was launched in April last year. accept eRupee CBDC for premium payments. So did Reliance Retail announced Last year when it started accepting CBDC as payments at its stores in Mumbai.

Reserve Bank of India Allegedly It was able to meet its target of 1 million daily transactions through CBDC by the end of 2023. Indian banks rewarded some employee benefits with the digital rupee in December to help the RBI meet its target.

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