India’s CBDC platform hits 5m users 20 months after pilot launch

Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das urged a cautious CBDC rollout, as the retail pilot now reaches over 5 million users.

India‘s central bank digital currency platform has surpassed the 5 million users mark as the country continues to cautiously expand its digital currency pilot program, per a Business Standard report.

Speaking at a conference in Bengaluru on Monday, Aug. 26, Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das emphasized the need for a measured approach to the full-scale rollout of the country’s CBDC, also known as the e-rupee, stressing the importance of understanding its impact on users, monetary policy, and the broader financial system. Das highlighted that comprehensive insights from pilot data are crucial before moving forward with a wider implementation.

“Actual introduction of CBDC can be phased in gradually. Undoubtedly, CBDC has the potential to underpin the payment systems of the future, both for domestic payments and also cross-border payments.”

Shaktikanta Das, Reserve Bank of India Governor

Launched in December 2022, the RBI’s CBDC pilot covers both retail and wholesale segments. The pilot, currently involving 16 participating banks, has expanded beyond initial payment use cases to test offline and programmability functionalities. Das pointed out that the programmability feature could play a pivotal role, saying that it could serve as a “key enabler for financial inclusion by ensuring delivery of funds to the targeted user.”

The e-rupee adoption has been sluggish, with the Reserve Bank of India reporting 1 million retail transactions by late June, a milestone reached only after local banks introduced incentives and partially paid employee salaries using the state-issued digital currency.

The RBI had previously urged banks to increase transactions to at least 1 million per day by late 2023 to test the system’s scalability. However, this push has since ceased, casting doubt on the future of the digital currency initiative due to the gap between incentivized metrics and actual user adoption.