The Reserve Bank of India today said that the first pilot of the Digital Rupee (Wholesale segment) will be launched tomorrow for transactions in government securities. Digital Rupee is the Digital Currency launched by the Reserve Bank of India. The central bank said in a statement today that the use case for the pilot is the settlement of secondary market transactions in government securities. The RBI has identified nine banks to participate in the pilot and these banks are the State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank, IDFC First Bank and HSBC
The RBI also said the first pilot of the Digital Rupee – Retail segment is planned for launch within a month in select locations in closed user groups comprising customers and merchants.
The government of India announced the launch of the Digital Rupee — a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) from FY 2022-23 onwards in the Union Budget placed in the Parliament on February 01, 2022.