The Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) expresses his vision to transform the country’s ecosystem with Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in his farewell event. During his speech held on Dec. 10, Governor Shaktikanta Das shed light on his six-years performance regarding India’s adaptation of innovative technologies.
India advances in CBDC development with pilot launch
Das mentioned the RBI Innovation Hub and regulatory sandbox he established during his charge. Moreover, the Governor praised India’s current status regarding the development of their CBDC project. While some of the large countries are still in discussion and doing experiments, India nears the completion of the CBDC project by launching the CBDC pilot phase on Nov. 1.
While departing the RBI office, Das expressed his optimism about the digital rupee to become the future currency and replace paper money in the upcoming years. Likewise, while commenting on the future of digital money, the Governor noted in a statement;
As I see it, CBDC has a huge potential in the coming years, in the future. In fact, it is the future of currency.
To enable instant payment settlements across the world, India previously had agreements with neighbouring countries in Asia to add them in its cross-border payment network with plans to include the Middle East as well.
Also, a report by Bloomberg shows that India had plans to establish its CBDC network as a primary payment solution of the state. Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka are some of those countries already operating CBDC as a primary payment solution.
Das faced criticism upon his decision to roll out a “systematic wide” CBDC and the officials advised him to first analyze its impact on monetary policy and technology’s potential.
Still, Das never stepped back and expressed confidence in CBDC’s potential. In response to these comments, he noted in a statement;
Such understanding would emerge from the generation of user data in pilots. The actual introduction of CBDC can be phased in gradually,
