Winning Bizness Desk

E-Rupee launched in 4 cities, no need to have a bank account and internet

Mumbai. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) launched the pilot project of retail digital rupee (e-rupee) on December 1 as its pilot project and the entire process of digital rupee creation, distribution and retail use will be closely examined. RBI said that the pilot will have a closed group of customers and merchants covering select locations. E-Rupee will be distributed through banks and users will be able to keep it in digital wallets in mobile phones and devices. With digital wallet - Person-to-person or person-to-merchant transactions will be done while merchants can also be paid through QR code. RBI believes that e-Rupee will give a boost to the digital economy and will help in achieving the goal of reducing the cash economy. It will also help in reducing the transaction cost as well as the payment system will become more effective.

How will this work?

There are many questions in people's minds regarding e-Rupee. How will it be? Apart from this, there is also a question in the mind of many people that how is it different from UPI? First of all understand what is e₹? e₹ is a digital form of currency based on blockchain technology. It is of two types – CBDC Wholesale and CBDC Retail. Its value will also be equal to the current currency. This will also be accepted like physical currency. e₹ can be kept in the mobile wallet. There will be no need for a bank account to keep it. On November 1, the RBI launched the pilot of wholesale e-Rupee. These are only for large financial institutions including banks, large non-banking finance companies and other large transactional institutions. For this SBI, BOB, Union Bank, HDFC, ICICI, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank, IDFC First Bank and HSBC were selected.

E-Rupee can be converted into other form of money

E-Rupee can be converted into any other form of money. 8 banks have been selected for the CBDC retail pilot, but the first phase will start with State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank and IDFC First Bank in four cities. After this, four more banks including Bank of Baroda, Union Bank, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank will join this pilot project which will initially cover four cities - Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Bhubaneswar and will gradually expand to Ahmedabad, Gangtok, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Lucknow, Patna and Shimla. More banks and more cities can be included gradually.

Digital wallet will be provided by the bank

After the introduction of e-rupee, currency will not have to be deposited in the account even once. There will be no need for a bank account in e-rupee transactions. RBI will transfer money directly to digital wallet instead of physical currency. This means that the way you keep notes in your pocket now, instead of keeping e-rupee in your wallet, you will be able to pay each other. This digital wallet will be provided by the bank. What will be its complete process, it will become more clear in the coming days when it will be fully launched.