India Expands Digital Rupee Pilot with New Features

According to Foresight News, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced plans to expand the scope of its digital rupee (CBDC) pilot in its 2024-25 annual report. The expansion will introduce new features such as programmability and offline payments for both retail and wholesale versions. These enhancements aim to improve the applicability of the digital rupee in areas with limited network connectivity and tailor payment solutions for specific scenarios like government subsidies or corporate spending controls. Currently, the retail pilot involves 17 banks and 600,000 users, with the RBI allowing certain non-bank entities to offer CBDC wallets to further increase adoption. The wholesale pilot has also seen increased participation, with four additional primary dealers joining. During the same period, India's digital payment transactions grew by 34.8% in volume and 17.9% in value. The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has positioned India as a leader in the global real-time payments sector, handling 48.5% of the world's real-time payment transactions. The RBI has also introduced innovative features like 'delegated payments' to broaden the reach of digital payments across various social strata.