India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the central bank will be ready to launch its blockchain-based central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital rupee, before March 2023. However, the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Executive Director, T Rabi Sankar, clarified on Thursday that the central bank is also open to other technologies.
The technology choices are open. We are open to trying out all possible technologies, it depends on the use case — which will be more appropriate.
India’s central bank is in no rush to launch its digital rupee. RBI Governor, Shaktikanta Das, shared that the institution’s cautious approach stems from the new-ness of the concept. “There are many risks,” he said, highlighting that cybersecurity and the possibility of counterfeiting are the biggest issues to address prior to launch.
Whatever we’re doing, we’re doing it very carefully. We don’t want to rush into it.
The RBI did not reveal an exact timeline for the roll out but accepted that it will be in line with the March 2023 deadline shared with Sitharaman
