India Expands Digital Rupee Pilot
As leading banks such as HDFC and ICICI expand their digital rupee offerings, India’s push towards digital currency adoption has gained traction. HDFC recently launched a Digital Rupee app to promote the “future of money,” and ICICI Bank collaborated with online retailer Pine Labs to enable digital rupee payments.
In the fourth quarter of 2022, India launched a digital rupee pilot programme with four national banks, and the government expanded the programme to at least nine banks, including 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 Bank.
According to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, as of February 28, 2023, the pilot programme had more than 15.8 million digital rupees in circulation. The Reserve Bank of India is overseeing the inclusion of CBDC as a payment option in the pilot programme, but some customers are concerned about technical glitches.
(With inputs from Shikha Singh)
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