New Delhi: In the month of December last year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) started the pilot project of Digital Currency. After that, some banks joined this project. Renowned businessman Anand Mahindra made a purchase with digital rupees from a fruit seller outside the main branch of RBI in Mumbai. In the first phase, eight banks including five cities of the country were associated with this project. Due to this, the enthusiasm of the Central Government and RBI has also been mixed. Experiments are underway to use the digital rupee in wholesale and retail forms. Now efforts are being made to take this service to every doorstep of the country. Seeing the ease and interest in using the digital rupee, RBI has decided to start this service in five banks in 9 more cities.
Reserve Bank of India announced
The Reserve Bank of India announced the expansion of e-Rs. Accordingly, this service is being started in 9 more cities. In the second phase of Digital Rupee, Ahmedabad, Gangtok, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Lucknow, Patna, Shimla, and other cities are being added. Efforts are on to launch this service in lower towns and rural areas soon. Banks like the State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank (ICICI), Yes Bank, and IDFC First Bank were involved in the first phase. Now four more banks are being included in this project. These include the Bank of Baroda (BOB), Union Bank of India (UBI), HDFC Bank, and Kotak Mahindra. The digital currency has just been launched. But due to its mobility and ease of use, the number of users is increasing.
Enhanced user and merchant engagement
RBI has given figures on this. The use of central bank digital currency (CBDC) has increased. 50,000 users and 5,000 merchants have started using digital rupees in the country. But the popularity of the digital rupee is on the rise. The demand for digital money is on the rise. Hence RBI has decided to increase the number of banks in the cities where the digital rupee was launched in the first phase and increase the participation of users and merchants. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued digital currency worth Rs 1.71 crore on the very first day of December 2022. Four banks demanded this currency in the pilot project. In the first phase, Digital Rupee was launched in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Bhubaneswar. The digital currency was made available through four banks.
