The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on February 8 announced that the retail CBDC crossed 50,000 users. But RBI is in no hurry to expedite the use of the digital rupee, e-rupee, Deputy Governor, Rabi Sankar said.
“We have our targets in terms of users, in terms of merchants. We will go slowly,” Sankar added.
India launched CBDC for the wholesale and retail segments in November and December 2022, respectively. The retail e-rupee was launched within a closed group of banks and merchants in four select cities.
RBI’s Deputy Governor on February 8 held a press conference to inform that the CBDC pilot for the retail segment achieve its first milestone of garnering 50,000 users and 5,000 merchants, media reports said.
With the first pre-set milestone achieved, the retail CBDC is not adding new users for the time being. In the next stage of the pilot, more banks and cities would be included to drive the next round of user onboarding.
“We want the process to happen, but we want the process to happen gradually and slowly. We are in no hurry to make something happen so quickly,” Sankar explained why India wants to go slow with its CBDC plans.
The Indian government announced its plans to launch CBDC in 2022 and later promised to make it happen the same year. But RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das informed that Indian CBDC’s entry would be in a graded manner so that it doesn’t disrupt the existing payments and settlements system.
