As the world has been going digital, India seemed to be jumping on to this train. India’s central bank official revealed that the country was working towards a central bank digital currency [CBDC].
The world has been moving towards digitalization. The need to go digital spruced up following the emergence of the deadly COVID-19 virus that caused immense destruction. Even though the concept of CBDC existed during pre-COVID times, the need for it grew during and after the pandemic. China’s fast-paced development of the digital yuan further pushed governments across the globe to dive into the CBDC game.
Certainly, India did not want to fall back. The country was previously extremely hostile towards crypto, however, with time the government decided to fully learn about the space and then lay out regulations. Moving over to CBDCs, the governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Shaktikanta Das noted that India was making progress with regards to the development of a CBDC.
India’s central bank governor reveals CBDC trial phase date
In an interview with CNBC, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das suggested that the bank would roll out its first CBDC trial by December of this year. He added,
“We are being extremely careful about it because it’s completely a new product, not just for RBI, but globally. […] I think by the end of the year, we should be able to — we would be in a position, perhaps — to start our first trials.”
Furthermore, speaking about the Indian rupee, the governor noted that the central bank was looking into the impact of the digital asset on the country’s financial sector. In order to do so, the bank is reportedly inspecting an array of aspects of the asset to figure out its influence on the monetary policy and the existing currency.
The country’s recent interest in the development of a CBDC could pose beneficial as it would put itself in the ongoing CBDC race.