The initiative will be launched in collaboration with over 1,000 banks and financial institutions. The government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Reserve Bank of India to continue its efforts towards digitization and adoption of digital payments. Under this MoU, the Reserve Bank will work closely with them in promoting digital payments and creating an enabling ecosystem for financial inclusion.
“To promote digital payments, we are working with banks across India on an ambitious program that would make it easier for customers to use these products,” said RBI Deputy Governor S S Mundra at an event organized by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). “The bank-led initiative also seeks to create an enabling ecosystem which will help banks adopt new technologies as well as create conditions that will help them tap into customers’ increased interest in using digital payments.”
As part of this initiative, all retail banks will be provided with terminals by NPCI so that they can start accepting digital payments from their customers. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to launch a digital currency on December 1, 2019, on a pilot basis. The new currency will be called the Retail Digital Rupee (RDR), and it will be used to make payments in retail stores.
According to the central bank, “The RDR is an open-access digital currency that can be transferred between users through a peer-to-peer network. It is not backed by any central bank or monetary authority.”
The RBI hasn’t announced what the exchange rate will be for the RDR, but it said that it would be set at a fixed value. The Reserve Bank of India has launched a new digital currency, the RBI announced on Friday. The new currency will be used primarily for retail payments and is expected to expand the use of electronic payments in India. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is planning to launch a digital version of the rupee in December 2020 on a pilot basis. The central bank has already put out a tender for the development of a new digital currency, which will be issued by the end of 2020.
The Reserve Bank of India has long been interested in creating a digital currency, and last year it announced that it would issue a framework for such an alternative to paper currency. At the time, it said that such a digital currency could be provided by 2019 or 2020. At that time, however, there was no indication that this would happen soon—and now, it seems that 2019 is gone entirely. The Reserve Bank of India has released some information about how they will work with banks and other institutions to develop their digital version of fiat currency. The new cryptocurrency will be based on blockchain technology, but will also integrate with existing systems like Swift and SEPA.
It’s not clear yet whether this means that there are plans for more than one alternative version of fiat currency (perhaps there are plans for multiple types). It seems likely that there will be other options besides Bitcoin or Ethereum. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to launch the retail digital rupee on December 1 on a pilot basis. The Reserve Bank has reportedly approved the policy framework and the final Governing Council meeting will be held on November 30.
