▶️The Reserve Bank of India will launch new use cases for the digital rupee

The central bank of India is expanding its digital rupee pilots with new features such as programmability and offline payments, aiming to achieve greater financial inclusion.

The Reserve Bank of India will launch new use cases for the digital rupee

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) plans to expand the scope of its digital rupee pilots by introducing new use cases and features for its central bank digital currencies (CBDC) both retail and wholesale, according to the central bank's Annual Report for 2024-25.

The central bank indicated that it seeks to explore programmability and offline capabilities for the digital rupee, features that could enhance its applicability in areas with limited internet access and personalize payments for specific use cases, such as government subsidies or corporate spending controls.

Currently, both versions of the CBDC are in pilot testing. The retail CBDC pilot is being conducted with selected customers and merchants through participating banks, while the wholesale pilot is aimed at interbank market use.

According to the report, the retail pilot has reached 600,000 users across 17 banks. To further scale adoption, the RBI has allowed "certain non-banks [...] to offer CBDC wallets."

The wholesale pilot has also seen growing institutional interest. The scope of the wholesale segment was further expanded and diversified with the addition of four independent primary dealers (SPD), as confirmed by the report.

India dominates real-time payments

During the fiscal year 2024-25, digital payments in India experienced significant growth, both in volume and value. According to the report, total digital payments recorded a growth of 34.8% in volume and 17.9% in value.