The Reserve Bank of India is preparing to conduct the retail pilot of the digital rupee. The pilot should launch within a month.
The RBI is in the final stage of preparing the rollout of the retail digital rupee pilot. Among the participants are the State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, ICICI Bank, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank and IDFC First Bank.
Each bank participating in the trial will test the CBDC among 10,000 to 50,000 users. To integrate the new payment option, the banks will collaborate with PayNearby and Bankit platforms. The CBDC infrastructure will be held by the National Payments Corporation of India.
Both customers and merchants will have to download the special wallets for the CBDC, although later the RBI plans to fully integrate it with existing digital banking services. Reportedly, the digital rupee is intended as a supplement to the current payment system and not its replacement.
