File photo: A representation of virtual currency Bitcoin.
MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said that it is working towards a phased implementation strategy for its digital currency and examining use cases where it can be deployed with little disruption. Making a strong argument in favour of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) for India, the RBI has said that it would reduce currency costs for the government and would help offset the threat of virtual currencies.
“Developing our own CBDC could provide the public with uses that any private virtual currency can provide and to that extent might retain the public preference for the rupee. It could also protect the public from the abnormal level of volatility some of these virtual currencies experience,” RBI deputy governor T Rabi Sankar said on Thursday at a webinar organised by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.
RBI Contemplating Pilot Launch of Digital Currency in Near Future: Deputy Governor T Rabi Shankar
The idea of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is ripe, and many central banks in the world are working towards it, Sankar said. By Press Trust of India | Updated: 23 July 2021 09:41 IST
RBI has been exploring the pros and cons of introduction of CBDC since quite some time
Highlights
The Deputy Governor further said legal changes would be necessary
RBI is examining scope of CBDCs, underlying tech, validation mechanism
The Reserve Bank is working on a phased implementation strategy for its own digital currency and is in the process of launching it in wholesale and retail segments in the near future, RBI Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar said on Thursday.
RBI working on phased introduction of digital currency, mulls pilot projects
The RBI is working on phased introduction of its own digital currency and is mulling pilot projects in wholesale and retail segments in the near future, Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar said on Thursday. He also said several countries have implemented specific purpose Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) in the wholesale and retail segments.
A CBDC is a legal tender issued by a central bank in a digital form. It is the same as a fiat currency and is exchangeable one-to-one with the fiat currency. Sankar said developing a domestic CBDC could provide the public with uses that any private virtual currency (VC) offers and to that extent might retain public preference for the rupee.
India’s central bank may have answered one of the country’s
cryptocurrency industry’s biggest questions. Speaking at a webinar organized by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, a top advocacy group in India, T Rabi Sankar, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI),
said “private virtual currencies” are at “substantial odds” to the historical concept of money. He questioned the comparison of crypto assets with commodities like gold, saying that cryptos have no “intrinsic value”.
The country’s industry has often asked questions about what the government’s definition of “private cryptocurrencies” is. The term was first heard of when it appeared in the agenda for the Parliament’s Budget session back in February-March. A bill was expected at the time, which would ban the use of private
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