On December 1, 2022, the Reserve Bank of India will begin the first pilot program for retail digital rupees (e-R).
"Selected locations in the closed user group (CUG) with participating customers and merchants would be covered by the pilot. The e-R would resemble a virtual token that functions as money. The same denominations that coins and paper money are currently distributed in would apply to it. It will be distributed through middlemen like banks, according to the RBI.”
Users will be able to conduct transactions with e-R using a mobile-based digital wallet provided by the participating banks. The central bank states that both person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions are feasible.
Payments can be made to retailers using the QR codes that are displayed at retail locations.
Additionally, RBI has chosen eight banks to take part in this pilot program in various phases. Four banks — State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank, and IDFC First Bank — will launch the first phase in four cities. Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank will later be a part of this pilot.
The first cities where the pilot will be implemented are Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, and Bhubaneswar. Along with Shimla, Gangtok, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Lucknow, Patna, and Gangtok, other cities will be covered. According to the RBI, the pilot's parameters may be gradually expanded to include more banks, users, and locations.
Earlier this month, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das announced that the bank would conduct a parallel retail e-rupee trial to the wholesale e-rupee pilot.
Das said that the RBI's overarching goal is to launch the CBDC fully "in the near future," declining to provide a specific timeframe.
"I won't specify a timeframe for when the CBDC will be fully operationalized because we need to move forward in this area very cautiously. It is being performed for the first time by everyone on Earth. We want to avoid moving too quickly, "He asserted.
The RBI will want to address all of those issues and introduce the CBDC in a way that is non-disruptive because there will be some technological and procedural challenges, he said.
The pilot program, according to the central bank, will test the stability of the entire creation, distribution, and retail use of digital rupees in real-time. Based on the lessons learned from this pilot, various aspects and uses of the e- R token and architecture will be tested in subsequent pilots.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUKjQHZLWzA
