India explores new features for CBDC amid weak retail activity
The Reserve Bank of India is said to be working with local banks to link the digital version of e-rupee with the country’s national payments system. India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), is reportedly collaborating with local financial institutions to make its central bank digital currency (CBDC) also known as e-rupee, more interoperable, Reuters has learned, citing sources familiar with the matter. According to the report, the RBI wants to boost the usage of CBDC as the current retail activity with the digital currency reportedly remains way below the target set for 2023 (18,000 operations a day vs. 1 million expected). Sources close to the matter said the central bank is trying to find a way to enable offline e-rupee transactions and link the digital currency to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India’s national real-time payments system. The report says the RBI and the local banks are exploring a payment option which would make the e-rupee...