India central bank proposes steps to widen usage of its digital currency

THE Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday (Feb 8) proposed more features to popularise its central bank digital currency (CBDC), or the e-rupee.

The RBI plans to allow digital rupee transactions when a customer is offline and also introduce programmability, which will provide retail users newer ways of accessing the e-rupee.

The features will be introduced through pilots in a gradual manner.

India’s e-rupee has been devised as a digital alternative to physical cash and uses distributed-ledger technology.

So-called programmability will permit government agencies to ensure that payments are made for defined benefits, the central bank said on Thursday.

It will also allow companies to programme expenditures like business travel for their employees.

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The central bank has also proposed to add features like a validity period or geographical ring-fencing for the e-rupee, as well as offline solutions for remote and hilly areas with poor Internet connectivity.

Reuters had reported in September that the RBI was working with banks to popularise the e-rupee by adding additional features.

Indian banks disbursed some employee benefits through the digital rupee in December, helping the RBI meet its target of one million daily transactions by end-2023, Reuters reported last month, citing sources.

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Separately, the RBI proposed on Thursday the adoption of a principle-based framework for authenticating digital payment transactions to ensure digital security.

In India, the payments ecosystem has largely adopted the SMS-based one-time password method that has been subject to misuse, leading to instances of frauds. REUTERS