New Delhi: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor T. Rabi Sankar on Wednesday confirmed that the central bank will launch its digital currency, Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), as a pilot project this year. Sankar referred to the fact that the digital payments segment in the country has been growing at a rate of 40 to 50 per cent per annum.
The deputy governor explained that CBDC is the most efficient system for cross-border payments. Earlier, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced in the Union Budget that CBDC would be launched in 2022-23.
The RBI is not aiming for a cashless society but is keen to give customers viable alternatives. Sankar further said that the Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, is likely to become more internationalised and that RBI is also focusing on scaling up fraud management. Also, the central bank is trying to safeguard data privacy under the ambit of digital infrastructure. It is also working on scaling up the technological stability of the digital payments infrastructure, he added.
Addressing the India Ideas Summit, the deputy governor said that the RBI is trying to calibrate policy on digital payments as per the feedback being received from stakeholders.
