• Reliance Retail, a leading Indian retail chain, has begun accepting the national CBDC, the digital rupee (e₹), at one of its store lines.
• India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) outlined plans for the CBDC in India in a concept note in October last year.
• The company is partnering with banking institutions ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank, along with fintech Innoviti Technologies for the CBDC payment system.
Reliance Retail’s Acceptance of National CBDC
A leading Indian retail chain, Reliance Retail, has begun accepting the national CBDC, the digital rupee (e₹). In India, the central bank is testing digital currency across wholesale and retail segments. Reliance Retail has begun accepting e₹ at one of its store lines and intends to expand the payment process to all of its businesses.
The RBI’s Concept Note
India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) outlined plans for the CBDC in India in a concept note in October last year. The central bank defined a number of factors related to introducing a digital rupee including potential positive and negative effects on the country. According to RBI’s statement one of objectives behind introducing a CBDC is reducing operational cost associated with managing cash.
Pilot Testing
CBDC support is already available at Reliance Retail’s gourmet store line as per company’s statement. Furthermore they stated that they will be expanding support for digital rupee across all their establishments which could potentially accelerate adoption rate of this technology within country .For this purpose it has partnered up with banking institutions ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank along with fintech Innoviti Technologies for creating payment system related to this currency .At checkout customers who choose to pay through this currency are given QR code at center for executing transaction .
V Subramaniam’s Statement
V Subramaniam Director from Reliance Retail Limited shared his opinion about this venture saying “This historic initiative of pioneering digital currency acceptance at our stores is line with company’s strategic vision offering power choice Indian consumers”
Digital Rupee Pilot Launch Date
In November 2020 central bank launched wholesale pilot program related to Digital Rupee only accessible by institutions and merchants then after month on 1st December 2022 it launched another pilot program related to retail segment . This new form of currency will be issued same denominations distributed through financial intermediaries as part pilot project users able execute transactions via wallet provided by said banks .