A month after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had started a pilot in the digital rupee - wholesale segment, the central bank will launch the first pilot for retail digital rupee (e ₹-R) tomorrow, December1. The Reserve Bank announces the launch of the first pilot for retail digital rupee (e ₹-R) on December 1, 2022, the central bank said in a statement on Tuesday.
According to Jyoti Prakash Gadia, Managing Director at Resurgent India- a SEBI registered category 1 merchant bank, the model chosen for the retail rupee is different from the earlier announced for the wholesale rupee which is being used by banks for government security transactions.
"The token-based mechanism as announced by RBI for retail is more suited for the common retail customers both for individual customer transactions with selected merchants and also for one individual with another individual, initially to be used within the selected closed group.
People in Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Bhubaneswar will be able to transact with e ₹-R through a digital wallet offered by participating banks and stored on mobile phones / devices starting 1 December 2022 in the initial phase which will be later expanded to nine more cities.
“The pilot would initially cover four cities, namely, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Bhubaneswar and later extend to Ahmedabad, Gangtok, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Lucknow, Patna and Shimla,” the central bank said.
“The. four top cities have been rightly chosen for the pilot launch keeping in view the sufficient availability of customers well-versed in digital transactions usage in these cities. Based on the learnings from the pilot launch further improvement and sophistication are expected with wider coverage by leveraging the strong digital infrastructure of the nation by RBI,” said Jyoti Prakash Gadia.
The eRs-R would be in the form of a digital token that represents legal tender. The RBI said it would be issued in the same denominations that paper currency and coins are currently issued. It would be distributed through intermediaries -- banks.
-Users will be able to transact with eRs-R through a digital wallet offered by the participating banks and stored on mobile phones/devices.
-Transactions can be both person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M).
-Payments to merchants can be made using quick response (QR) codes displayed at merchant locations, according to the statement.
The first phase will begin with four banks, namely State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank and IDFC First Bank in four cities across the country. Eight banks have been identified for phase-wise participation in this pilot, according to the central bank.
Four more banks, namely Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank will join this pilot subsequently, it added.
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