• Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das has said the central bank will explore offline solutions to facilitate the adoption of digital rupee in remote areas of the country with Internet access.
  • The CBDC system currently enables person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions using digital rupee wallets provided by pilot banks.
  • The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) launched a retail CBDC pilot in December 2022 and achieved a target of 1 million transactions per day in December 2023.

With little or no Internet connection in rural and urban areas, can be offline solution is introduced to promote the popularization of the Internet.

Digital rupee

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das has said the central bank will explore offline solutions to facilitate the adoption of its Central bank digital currency (CBDC), or digital rupee, in remote areas of the country with limited Internet access.

At the MPC review meeting on February 8, RBI Governor said:”It is proposed to introduce offline functionality in CBDC-R to enable transactions in areas with poor or limited Internet connectivity. These features will be introduced slowly through the pilot.”

On programmability, Das said the CBDC system currently implements peer-to-peer (P2P) and peer-to-merchant (P2M) transactions using digital rupee wallets provided by pilot banks.

Strengthen fund monitoring

Strengthen money monitoring and eliminate cash from the system: “We already have popular payment services with offline capabilities, especially UPI. CBDC is in line with the government’s vision of eliminating cash. While CBDC is an alternative solution, the main purpose is to have a well-monitored monetary system.”

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) launched a retail CBDC pilot in December 2022 and achieved a target of 1 million transactions per day in December 2023.

In both developing and developed economies, the motivations behind CBDC projects are mostly the same: financial stability and efficiency of cross-border payments. However, developing countries are also looking to increase financial inclusion through CBDCS.