India Aims to Introduce Its Official CBDC in Multiple Phases

Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) Dy. Governor said that India’s official CBDC is currently in its development phase. However, the Indians will soon be able to test their CBDC because the Reserve Bank of India wants to introduce CBDC in phases, says RBI. The bank firmly believes that the launch of CBDC into phases will exclude the possibilities of disrupting the local monetary or banking system.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) through its Dy. Governor, Rabi Sankar, announced that India’s CBDC will soon be introduced within the Indians. He informed that the bank has decided to launch the CBDC into multiple phases. Sankar also pointed out that for the time being RBI is examining the CBDC project from all angles. He said that the CBDC will be launched only when RBI is fully certain that CBDC won’t be disrupting the local monetary or banking system.

Sankar informed that very soon RBI will fulfill its promise of presenting an official Indian CBDC amongst the general public. But the CBDC will be provided in multiple phases, allowing the bank to simultaneously test the CDBC as well as check its usability. In addition, the stage-wise launch will help the bank in determining the interest of people towards the CBDC, stated Sankar.

Dy. The Governor of RBI further told that in the view of the bank CBDC is no different than a normal currency. It explained that CBDC is exchangeable like any other fiat of the world. However, the only difference is that it has no physical structure instead it would be available virtually or digitally, claimed Sankar.

According to Sankar, India’s official CBDC is entirely different from the rest of the world’s CBDCs. He explained that other CBDCs have been developed as special-purpose i.e. either for retail or wholesale purposes. Meanwhile, the present model of India’s CBDC is a neutral one as it is currently neither for retail or wholesale purposes. However, the possibility of Indian CBDC’s use for retail or wholesale purposes can be considered at a later stage. Sankar said that the bank would like to keep this option open until it surpasses at least 2 phases.

Sankar then went onto deliberate upon some of the unique features of Indian CBDC. He explained that the first benefit of CBDC would be that people would not need to rely on carrying cash at all times. RBI also clarified that virtual assets such as Bitcoin do not fit within the Indian CBDC model because they are issued privately.

However, another possible reason for launching CBDC into phases could be that for quite some time India had been jeopardizing the crypto industry. The crypto market in India continues to be disrupted since when Indian Government had announced the launching of official CBDC. By introducing CBDC in phases, the Government may be trying to cheer up Indian crypto investors.